Stake Dance: Labor Day Week Part II

Friday began the Labor Day weekend in earnest for me.  When you work full-time year round, three-day weekends truly are an event worth noticing; especially when you are new and don’t get a whole lot of PTO yet!  In this situation, there’s nothing quite like getting off of work Friday afternoon with the whole weekend stretching out before you.


There was a stake dance that night that I had been considering going to over the course of that week, but I was still feeling ambivalent about it Friday afternoon when I received a text from a girl in my ward who needed a ride for the event.  There’s a long story behind this girl, both from my personal perspective as well as doubtless a lot more that I don’t know, but I won’t go into that here.  Suffice it to say that she has some pretty serious social issues, and as such, encouraging her in various activities is pretty important.  I agreed to give her a ride, knowing this meant that I was much more committed to this dance than I would have ever been on my own now.

Don’t get me wrong, I love dancing and typically I enjoy dances thoroughly, but I also know there’s almost nothing more painful than a bad dance.  It’s pretty much the most awkward social situation possible to be stuck at a dance if it really isn’t fun.  Still, I reassured myself that even though my early escape option was closed now, I could always go read a book somewhere if the dance was truly awful.

One of the things that originally drew me to this dance was the theme, which was a decades dance, and the invitation to wear clothing from your favorite decade if you wanted.  Call me weird, but I am definitely a fan of wearing costumes from time to time, and besides Halloween, there aren’t many opportunities our there to do so, unless you are a big Comic-con person or something.

Once I was fully committed to going to this event, I also decided that I was for sure going to dress for the occasion.  I didn’t really have time to come up with anything spectacular, so I was limited to what I could assemble from my on-hand wardrobe.  This seemed to lend itself best to a 50’s ensemble, and I was excited about the thought of trying to execute a 50’s hairstyle.  Though I didn’t have much time to put everything together, I thought it turned out pretty fun in the end.

I thought my worst fears were being realized in the first hour.  There weren’t many people there, and even fewer were actually dancing.  There was only one other girl from my ward in attendance along with me and the girl I’d given a ride.  The truth is, I would have left at some point during that first hour if I’d been by myself.  However, since I knew that the decision was no longer entirely my own, I tried to make the best of an awkward situation.  I got up and danced and got to know a few new people.

In that first hour, I was asked to dance by a guy in the stake who is confined to a wheel-chair.  I wasn’t entirely sure to handle the dancing part there, so we basically just held hands and talked while I stepped back-and-forth in place.  It was kind of weird, but I really did enjoy getting to know guy, and I was proud of him for not using his disability as an excuse to not get involved, especially considering how many other able-bodied people take the easy route out.  I determined to follow his example and push myself more that was entirely comfortable.

Later on, the crowd-size swelled and the dance really did become very fun.  Also, one of the girls I’ve become most friendly with in the ward ended up showing up, so things became much more enjoyable.  When I am actually having fun at a dance, I get a serious workout.  By the time I got home and took my ponytail out, pretty much all my hair was damp from sweat.  That was gross, in a way, but at least I could tell that I’d gotten my exercise for the day!


On the last dance, my friend asked a guy that she is interested in and had been trying to get the attention of all night to dance, and I thought I would enjoy the closing moments being proud of her courage, but I ended up being asked to dance by a guy from the stake who is apparently into swing-dancing.  Even though the song was not conducive to it, we ended up swing-dancing and I was super terrible.  That was probably at least partly due to the fact that I was just laughing most of the time thanks to being tired and making a lot of mistakes.  That guy must have seriously thought I was kind of crazy!

I was really glad in the end that I’d been more-or-less forced to stick the whole thing out.  I was super tired when I finally got home way after my normal bedtime, but I had a great time out overall.  It was definitely a much better use of my time than sitting at home by myself would have been.