Dance Team

I was finally in high school, still new to the town, trying to make new friends. After learning how many friends I made by joining the soccer team in ninth grade, I decided to go back to my true passion, dance. I tried out my sophomore year and made the team. I was more than ecstatic and becoming a squad leader was icing on the cake. This dance team was completely different than anyone I had been on before. Middle school teams were serious, but more amateur and studios were all about technique. This High school team was about to become my life. We had two weeks of summer practice from 8am-8pm; we ran, worked out, ran more and learned choreography. It was a squad of about 20 girls, and after spending so much time together we became one huge family. Our water breaks turned into venting and gossip sessions, we shared everything with one another and learned to love each other. We all came from different backgrounds and different clichés, or stereotypes. We had some preps, scene girls, “chongas” and well weirdo’s, but despite our differences we all loved to dance. After a year of squad leader I was promoted to captain for my Junior and Senior year. I loved the team, and became the mother figure. When the girls got nervous I’d calm them down, when it was time to perform I pumped them up, and when something was wrong in their personal lives they always found it right to come talk to me. 

Dance took up most of my time, practice everyday from 3pm to 6pm sometimes till 9pm. At times it affected my friendships with people outside of dance team, my two best friends were not on the team, so I wasn’t able to hang out with them as much. Weekends we traveled to competitions and days off from dance I wanted to sleep. It didn’t matter though, my best friends knew how important it was for me to be on the team and be there for the girls. After three years of dancing for my high school, I’ve come along way, became a leader and met some of the most amazing girls that I would have never talked to really if it weren’t for the team. I’m away at college now but my girls always text me or call me if they need advice or want someone to talk to, and I couldn’t be more thankful for gaining such a respect.