Swaggerville journal 2/5- Dancing

It's great that I have friends who have known me for more than a decade. In a lot of ways, I'm a lot different than the person I was when I was 15. The friend who I've known the longest, AK, is also the best male dancer I know. (The best female dancer I know is whomever I happen to be dancing with at the moment.) AK pretty much came out of the womb with rhythm. I've known him since first grade, and at every social, prom, or any event when music is on, he's the best dancer on the floor.

On the other extreme, to give an example of how I felt about dancing when I was younger, I have to talk about Junior Luau from my junior year of high school. When the music was on and there was a lot of fun to have, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of friends, petrified that one of my more extroverted friends might try to force me from my chair. For most of the night, I was successful. I was able to blend in pretty well. Then my classmate Nirmala started approaching the table. Of course, my friend Billy (in one of the rare times that he exposed himself as the evil human being that he is) yells over to her "Darryl hasn't danced in a while". Nirmala forced me away from the table and we danced clumsily and awkwardly for a song or two before I was happily able to get back to my chair.

There are a couple of things I should mention here. Nirmala loved dancing. A few months later, at a Halloween dance, even though I wasn't a better dancer, I was the one doing the approaching. I spent most of the next 5 years getting a crash course in "How To Dance Better" from AK and Nirmala. I wanted to get better. This may have been influenced by the fact that I was dating Nirmala by then. (As someone wise once told me, either you dance with her or someone else will) Since things worked out, maybe Billy isn't that evil and I've gotten more than my share of payback since, so we're even.

Now, at 25, things are a bit different. I try to dance to everything, whether the.music is hip-hop, swing, or even EDM (MOAR JUMPING, MOAR FISTPUMPING). I'm excited about any event where there might be music. Whether dancing in the middle of a circle, battling classmates, dancing on tables in Breckenridge (that was fun), and the classic "trying to get an attractive girl's attention". I definitely enjoy dancing a lot more now than I did back then. I'm still nowhere near as good as AK, though.