Last night was my first dance! It was our first time doing a formal dance with people from our homeschool group, HEARTH, along with a few other people. It was called the Starry Night Winter Formal, with the Starry Night theme. Our art class mad Starry Night images this year so they had all those hung up around the photo area. It was a super fun night. We were surprised with how much the boys got into it and how everyone was on the dance floor basically the entire time. Everyone looked so sharp too! I got a great dress and it turned out nice.

Here is a list of some of my top favorite parts, in no particular order, of the Winter Formal.

1

The music! Our friend’s dad was the DJ and he did a great job! Together with the help of his daughters and another friend, they came up with the playlist and it was awesome! There were a handful of songs I didn’t know but the rest I recognized and it was very fun to sing along to the words and bond with everyone in that way. Some of the my favorites were “Let It Go,” (which the girls loved but the boys did too) “This is the Greatest Show,” “Take me Home, Country Roads,” “Shake it off,” “Billy Jean,” “Cake By the Ocean,” “From Now On” (From “The Greatest Showman”) which was the ending and a fun way to end it.

2

The dance tutorials! Our friend’s dad, the DJ, did a great job at teaching new dances throughout the night, his daughters taught some too. My favorites were the cha cha slide, church clap, and a fun one where it was basically two conga lines, a girls and a boys line, and you did a series of moves and kept moving farther and farther ahead so it was a race. I’m happy to report that the girls won. ?

3

Hanging out with all the girls. We went out to eat with a group of girls before the dance started and we basically stuck together the entire night! There were groups within the girls but there was not much mix between guys and girls. It was fun to be unified for the most part, and at the beginning because, again, most of us went out to eat but it took longer so we arrived late and all the boys were on the dance floor when we got in. We kinda all went in at the same time and it felt like we were making our presence known! And that continued throughout the night, it was girls- and boys. But I made some nice connections through the night and overall it was a great bonding experience with everyone there, it was a good time. I especially making a few connections with some individual people during the night.

4

The conga line. Yep, it broke out. ? And it got almost everyone in I think! It was fun!

5

The atmosphere! The moms of the planning committee, including my mom, and some other friends did a great job decorating the place. The DJ and our friends got all the lighting and sound set up which made it all really cool. It was dark with a disco ball, moving lights, and loud music, It was awesome! Plus the planning committee did a nice job with the dessert table. ??

What’s something you liked about it (and why)?

I loved how into it everyone was! The boys were on the dance floor almost the whole time and the girls… were definitely into it. It was a great bonding experience, and I’m hoping it’ll help all our connections going forward in HEARTH. I could feel more confident, over the course of the night with our speech class, drama and our story performance we’re going to be putting on in a few weeks.

What’s something you disliked about it (and why)?

A lot a things were going through my head and reasons why I did certain things, but I would have liked it if the girls weren’t almost against or versus the boys? That could just be in my head and my actions. Some of it conflicts with the question above so I don’t know. ?

What was your biggest takeaway or lesson?

I probably would have guessed this before, but at one point I asked one of the girls if this was her first dance. She said no, and asked if it was mine, which I said yes. She said this was a pretty good first experience, she’d say. She said the more you dance the funner the night will be for you. I agree. But also, I was very self conscious at the beginning and I could see other people that way too. But eventually I got into it. It was probably for other people to see, it wasn’t like I was just in my own zone but I did get less self conscious. I saw the other girls really into it so I wanted to match them and kinda be a force against the boys. ? I would give the advice to others to just get into it. It’ll actually look less awkward to be confident than to be awkward about dancing.

What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience?

Maybe this doesn’t count for this question but… I’m excited for next year’s! I hope to go again!

Lucy