Redemption

I've told this story to a handful of you. About how in sixth grade I had this mad crush on a girl and waited on the day of the sixth grade dance (the only one) after school for her to leave the classroom and just as she moved out the door, I called out for her. She turned around, framed in the doorway and, instead of asking her if she was going to the dance, I say, after a pregnant pause, "Did you ever get your pencil back?" Feeling like a total loser, I decided not to go. Then when I changed my mind, my mom told me it was too late to go.

Well, I redeemed myself and went to oversee the sixth grade dance this year. It was sooooo cute!!! They looked cute dressed up to the luau theme, but they were mostly cute because of the entertainment they provided. At first no one was dancing. Everyone stood in these clumps talking. Then I got a report that this one boy started dancing beside a girl and soon thereafter more and more started to dance. And the girls totally took charge. They were the ones chasing down the boys and getting them to dance. By the end they were grabbing boys for slow-dancing and had to physically place the boys hands on their hips saying, "That wasn't so hard, was it?" All of them were cute though, and it was interesting to see who was dancing with who. So much gossip! And some of them could really dance. I made sure to go around and dance with different groups and I'd have them try and teach me some moves. I had a lot of fun myself. I also got to play a little matchmaker. There was one girl who would report to me when she danced with someone. She and her friends are really sweet and cute and a little shy so I'd find some boys who I thought were adequately sweet and cute and would send them over to ask the girls to dance. And another boy, very sweet, but a little nerdy, had emailed me to tell me how there was this one girl he really wanted to ask to dance. So I got reports on how his efforts were going throughout the day. Of course it turned out that the girl he was talking about was one of the "teenager" popular girls, but after a few rejections, she finally danced with him and he was SO excited. I got asked to dance a bunch of times and the cool thing about being a teacher is that it doesn't matter how you dance, you're cool just because they got you to dance at all. It was fun just to stand back and watch them though.

Moral of the story is...I'm sad I missed my sixth grade dance, but at least I got a feel for what it's like. I would recommend chaperoning a sixth grade dance if the opportunity arises and you're looking for a good reason to smile a lot. I wish I could go to dances now. I missed so many of them when I had a chance. And now I don't really have a chance. And I'm not a huge fan of the club scene; it's just different then a school dance. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to teach middle school.