Awkward School Dances
Excerpt from a Mini Memoir in the Making
Since I was an anti-socialite, I missed a lot of school dances. I think I went to one or two. In middle school, I went to the last dance at John T. Magee, before they closed it down for remodeling or something like that. In high school, I went to one homecoming or some shit like that. I wasn’t really a public dancing person. It felt pervy and strange. Everyone was trying to find someone to juke on, you know, since it wasn’t allowed. And most of the lights were on so people could see you either dancing by yourself or looking around trying to scope someone to dance with. Plus the dj never played any good music. If you were to go to a high school dance now, they’d probably be spinning the same music as back in the day.
Before that, I used to go to dances with my sister. She convinced me to go to a Turnabout dance or homecoming dance with her. I knew some of the underclassmen. Of course they acted completely brand new because they just left middle school and were on to the freshman life. It’s life, you have to act that way to show that you’ve leveled up.
My sister was lucky though. Because my mom was, that mom, we always went to the school dances to stalk what my sister was doing. It was dark as hell in there and kids was feeling up on each other and doing god knows what else. See why they changed the rules? Nine year old me suffered secondhand embarrassment as we walked through the dark gym, sneaking up on my unsuspecting sister. At the time it was horrific, but now looking back, it makes a good story to “lol” to.
