Yeah, I'm sure everyone remembers the famous "high school preparation" speech from pretty much all of your teachers. On your first day, heck, almost your whole first WEEK, all you do in class is just blabber on about how you're going to be "prepped and ready for high school!" Yeah, ok. Tell that to me now, as I get 3 hours of homework a night, not including projects.
Of course, middle school isn't all that bad. Sure, the homework sucks, and sort of ruins the whole "I love school!" phase in pretty much every single kid, but there are other things to look forward too. Now that you're older and more mature (sort of), you get to do all kinds of cool stuff! For example, middle school dances!
I still remember my first middle school dance. It was the Fall dance back in 6th grade, kind of like a "Welcome Back to School! Say goodbye to your childhood innocence!" dance. My friends and I had been waiting for this moment our entire lives. We were going to show everyone just how awesome we were!
Yeah... we kind of forgot that we were still 6th graders. To a good 75% of the people at the dance, we were still little kids, not quite ready to handle dancing with anyone, especially someone of the opposite gender when it came to a slow song. So what did we do? What any other 6th graders with no confidence of our dancing abilities would do: chilled by the wall the whole night.
Now I'm sure you're thinking, "Wow, you wasted, like, 2-3 bucks (it was actually 5 bucks, in case you're wondering) to go stand against a wall for 3 hours. Aren't you smart," but it really wasn't that bad. We met and talked with new people, and we weren't like, hugging the damn wall all night. We just weren't in the middle of everyone. That's where the 8th graders danced, so they could go grind without getting caught.
So my friends and I are just hanging out by the wall, and the first slow song comes on. Great. Unlike my friends, I couldn't get the balls to go ask someone. So I just sat around looking like a loser, while I watched my friends dance with people. And it's not like they grabbed random people either. They just went up to someone they knew, and asked them to dance. Simple, right? Well, not for me.
I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't seem to move to go ask someone. It was like my brain was saying "Umm.... just where the hell do you think YOU'RE going?" and totally froze me up. After the dance, we gathered back up, and things went back to normal. Awesome!
No. The whole night went like this. After a ton of fast songs, a single slow song would come on, and my friends were gone. Finally it was the last song of the night, and it was a slow song. Well, I wasn't going to go the entire night without at least asking anyone. I didn't want to be THAT much of a loser. So I took in a deep breath and went right into the crowd to find a dance partner (for the purposes of the story, and not revealing names, let's call her Sally)
So I finally spot Sally, and the song's already a quarter over. But the thing is, I had spent all of this time trying to find Sally, that I hadn't thought of anything to say (Way to go, dumb ass).
Now, I had grown up with Sally (she was in the class) but we weren't like, close or anything, so I wasn't super nervous, but I was kind of freaking out (I was later told that I looked like a crazy man on drugs. Awesome!)
Deciding to just go with it, I mustered up my courage and walked right up to her. A quick, but gentle, tap on the shoulder, and Sally turns to look at me. This is how the following dialogue went, except for maybe a few words.
Me: "Hey Sally, do you wanna dance?"
Sally: "Oh, no thanks" (followed by an embarrassed "Im sorry" look)
Me: "That's fine. See ya later"
I had done it. I had asked a girl to dance. Now, I was turned down, but whatever, she apparently didn't dance with anyone all night, so that was cool. But after that, things started getting easier. My friends and I realized that if dances were going to be any fun whatsoever, we were going to have to slowly make a name for ourselves.
So now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna skip ahead 2 years to my 8th grade year. Like I said before, my friends and I had to make a name for ourselves, and we had all finally managed to do so. It took a while, and it took some major guts, but we got it done. Now my 8th grade year, for both dances and other school related activities, was the absolute perfect image of an 8th grade year. I was popular... well, to an extent. I had chosen the people I hung out with wisely (no drugs all the way, baby!), which sort of limited the numbers to only a few groups of kids at dances.
Anyway, so my friends and we arrive at the dance (I don't even remember what dance, cause it's not important, it's sort of an example of every dance we went to 8th grade year) and instantly we find our friends. Hugs are exchanged, and our awkward, "we're here to have fun" dancing commences. Now, I'm sure you all remember Cotten Eye Joe, Soulja Boy: Crank Dat, Apache Jump on It, and the Cha Cha Slide (Part 2 of course). If you don't, you need to hear them, because they are classic middle school dance songs. At least, they were, back in middle school.
Well, these songs would come on, generally evenly spread out through the dance, but when everyone single one of these songs (yes, all 4 of them) came on, my friends and I (we'll call them Billy and Robby, for the story's sake) would rush to the front of everyone, right in front of the DJ, and we would do all of these dances. My personal favorite was Crank Dat, mainly because I had finally mastered it in 8th grade, after not knowing how to do it in 6th and 7th. Well, this was how we made a name for ourselves. Everyone knew we would be up there, and every time we went up, there was cheering, mainly from the girls (which wasn't a bad thing, of course), and it was awesome.
Now there are bad stories of middle school dances. Heart breaks, fights, drug busts, and the occasional stink bomb, but I would say I really remember mainly good things about dances. Now granted, they all completely ruined what WAS my innocent mind (now it was not), they were all still an experience I will remember forever... Which is why when I'm a father, my daughter will be wearing a turtle neck sweater and snow pants to every dance she goes to :P
Thank you so much for this last statement as your sister starts middle school next year. And is, in fact, going to her first dance at the end of this school year. Thanks.
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