Saturday, February 4, 2017
Week: 26
Songs to Remember: Ocean Man - Ween, 679 - Fetty Wap, Gee (Lelion Dubstep Remix) - SNSD
Another reason for me to go to a school dance is to help others out. I look for other people's perspectives, experiences, whatever, before I do something new (not for everything, but, maybe for major things/larger things) to see if, they're feeling the same as me, thinking the same things as me, do the same things as me.
For those who don't want to directly ask for third-person perspectives on the matter and would rather have it be given to them indirectly, say, reading a person's experiences online, then, yeah, I'm sure this would help them, because it has helped me in the past. As for the reason, it gives a sense of "Hey, I'm not alone, this person has been through the same as me." It makes you feel normal, like, "Oh, it's not just me, this, this is a thing, a common thing."
So yeah, I'm hoping this review of one of my last High school dances will help at least somebody, because I did learn a lot of things than the other dances I've been to. So let's get this started, but first, I gotta go over the day yesterday, and then night. First up, Dance. We practiced in our outfits for the whole time, yeah, heh. Math, same old, same old. Break, same old, same old. Digital Art, ya'll already guessed it, it was just work, good ol' work. English, we had a substitute for that day, meaning we just, worked. Lunch, lunch was with, almost the whole cast (minus DrewN). But other than that, it was the usual meme, banter stuff.
Econ, that day we were reminded to bring our textbooks, which meant that we basically had the whole class time to work. Book work. Works well out for me and the people around me since, we don't really do much but just work when we need to, so, for me, it was just work mode. Earbuds in, and write. Finally, Chinese, it was reading on reading on reading, the perfect filler. After school, great, great preview for the next couple seasons, and tonight. We practiced learning SNSD's "Gee," this time it was in the dance room, of which we haven't had the chance to use for, a while, now, heh. I'm in there every day though so, doesn't feel too too different for me.
The beginning, where we're all waiting outside for our adviser to arrive so we can go in and start practicing, I was recollecting with people all around, like Jd and Cc. Inside though, Atr was with me for about, 99% of the time. Not even exaggerating, we were only separated for about, 5 minutes. Once. There was lots of Snapchatting, uhh, the people I interacted most with this time was Atr, this one sophomore who's a bit hyper, likes to draw anime, uses memes a bit too much, you know, aaand, Vh, ya'll remember her.
Little did I know that she and that dude broke up apparently, uhh, not sure when that happened but, it happened. Inferred this 'cause she ended up going to the dance with, a different, dude. But yeah, the dancing was good, my dancing. I didn't practice beforehand, uhh, I just, moved to the music as much as I could, and, it helped. A lot of hip movement, of which I don't do very often since male K-Pop dances are usually strong movements with parts other than hips sometimes. I also think just straight up just, coming up with random moves when listening to music helped too.
The dance room was also hot, very hot, due to body temperatures compiling in such a small space, forgot to tell that. After practice, it was 1-on-1 time with me and Atr, 'cause we went to her locker (which the locker gate for was locked) and then to my locker (of which, the locker gate was also locked). My quick thinking skills were surely tested, today. Overall, it went entirely, different from what I expected, and this time it was largely positive, better and positive.
Can't really say the same for the Winter Ball though, heh, it was just, different. Got home at 5:00 PM after KDT practice, showered, ate dinner, got dressed halfway through, searched up "How to tie a tie" on YouTube, charged my phone, checked my wallet, and waited for Jh to come pick me up. Jh had already picked up Jk on the way. We drove to this ballroom (an actual ballroom. The ceiling was high, but, not that big as you'd think. It was like a mini-ballroom) located downtown in this city next to our city, took around 20 minutes. The dance starts at 7:30 PM, but nobody was really late. Now for analysis.
First things first: you can't ever be late to a school dance (unless you come like, an hour later). I'm not saying "Don't be late." I'm saying "It's not possible to be late." Nobody is timing you on this, people aren't gonna have stopwatches out, looking at it and seeing when you arrive. Unless, you're meeting up with your friends or whatever, but you get what I mean. Everybody else, they got other things to worry about. After we parked, we walked over to the ballroom (which wasn't like, glass or anything, the building (which was only two stories, we were only allowed on the bottom floor), was like, stone, like the Lincoln memorial, except exceptionally smaller.
You go through the "empty out your pockets, show what's in your jacket, here's your wristband, let us scane your student ID for entry." No breathalyzer test this time though. There was a coat check to the right after entering all that. I made the right decision to trust Jk and put my jacket away because you will be sweating, if you choose to dance, even for a little bit. No matter how thin of clothing you decide to wear, you will sweat if you decide to dance. The body heat of 150+ people will rub off on you.
We (Jh, Jk, and I) go and get some drinks first. We reviewed the food offered and it was, pretty okay (considering we each had to pay $40 for our ticket). Some ice cream, flavored drinks, the chocolate fountain was disappointing though. Apparently last year they had an actual chocolate fountain. This time, it was a bowl, heh. Oh well. We didn't dance right away, we, or, they, said their greetings and shit to their buddies and classmates their. I didn't have many classmates that went, or, ones that I actually talk to (and this year, there ain't that much, heh). As for KDT people and all that: no, no, I, nobody that I knew of or saw, went. Ones, ones that I talk a lot to or have said things to, went.
My advice on this is that, if there's nobody around that you know much, you can do one of two of these things, or both: stick close to the friends who brought you here, or, make, people you know more of. As in, say, "Hey blank! Wow you look blank!" This is going off of Jk, who said this, a lot, or variations of. There were people who I know, that, didn't interact with him that much, but he just went with it, with the literal flow, and it worked for him. Didn't work, work, but it helped him ride the wave. Not, not a yike reference though. I'll get to yiking afterwards.
There were three rooms basically, one for food, one for, just quiet, and, one for the main dancing and tables and all. After exploring around, seeing what we got to work with for the place, I think we just went ahead and danced into the crowd, but only when it was building up. The whole night was a pretty consistent schedule surprisingly. It was just dancing, then getting drinks and cooling off, maybe some light chat, then go back in for the next round of dancing. I'll dissect the components of the different parts, in no particular order.
The tables. There were tables surrounding the dance floor. There's nothing wrong about sitting and watching with your friends from a table. It should not feel awkward and nobody should treat it as awkward. To be honest, it should feel the other way around, the ones dancing, should be awkward (and even then, that shouldn't be the case). So if you choose to sit, take it easy, enjoy the atmosphere without getting all sweaty and tired, go ahead. Taking pictures. Literally, everybody takes pictures. If you wanna take out your phone for a Snapchat, open up your phone on the dance floor, go ahead and do it. You shouldn't feel awkward for it, because, yeah, I did see a lot of people open up their phone on the dance floor while I was on it.
The food and drinks. Hey, if you're hungry or thirsty, go ahead. Wanna hang out at the drinks area? Go ahead. But hey, won't people think you're some sort of loser for just standing there? Sitting there? Sitting to yourself or one of your friends? Hell-fucking no. They got better things to worry about. If they do, if they're really an asshole who does that, actually calls you out for it, you gotta tell somebody. Being a "tattletale" is better than letting somebody be an use to you. From my experiences, that has never happened to me, somebody calling me out for standing or sitting somewhere on the side. People at my school aren't direct asses, heh. But if it does happen, do something about it.
The people. A large, large percentage of the people who go to my school dances are from the more, ghetto, percentile of my school. I say this because, although they don't show much of it in class, when they get some freedom like a dark, strobe, social gathering that allows rubbing asses on crotches, they'll show it. There are also some who have never been to a dance before, so they'll obviously not be, doing so so much stuff. There's also people who, just, hang out friends, ya know, just casually. And, there's even people who you've never, ever seen at school before. Some with mustaches and/ or beards that you'd logically assume as "Does this guy even go to our school?" That happened for me. I saw a dude who looked very out of place (for obvious reasons), yiking -ish in the center of the dance crowd while I was in it. I was like "Is, is that like a teacher? he has a full-blown mustache. That does not look like a student." There are obviously more "types" of people you can find at these dances, but, these were the most common ones that you could find.
The music and dancing. Probably the most in-depth of all of this. Music: be prepared for rap and hip hop. And the Cha-Cha slide. And "Gas Pedal." I obviously do not listen to too much American rap and hip hop, so, I did not know a majority of, what was being said in the songs played. Dancing, oh boy. Maybe your school dances are more conservative, more restrained, maybe the opposite. For this one, it was kinda, unrestrained. For those who are close or are in the middle of the dance crowd on the dance floor, be prepared to see some yiking. What is "yiking" you ask? It's when a girl grinds her ass on a dude's crotch while he's holding onto her for dear life. I'd compare it to a uh, mortar and pestle, except much more aggressive.
Seriously, some were being a bit too aggressive. For example, I saw, on multiple occasions, girls, instead of having their hands on their hips and being yiked on, had their hands on the floor. Sometimes, it wasn't even to the music, sometimes the dude was just recreating the motion of an orbital sander and the girl was an uneven plane of wood. There was one point where a dude got so into the yiking, the girl's hand were on the floor, they were moving backwards, they were on the edge/ outside of the dance circle/ crowd, yiking basically in the open, aaand, everybody could see that this teacher dude was walking towards 'em. He was right behind them, the dude turns around and everybody was fucking hysteric. The dude yiking probably went limp when he found out a teacher just saw him going ham. The dude and the girl were probably scarred knowing that a teacher just saw them yiking hard, right then and there.
If you're dancing on the outter rim of the crowd, it may seem weird or awkward because you're on the outside, the people sitting on the tables out there can see and watch you dance, or attempt to dance. Yeah, don't feel awkward. There's gotta be an outer perimeter somewhere, so if it does end up being you, just face into the crowd, and dance. And by the way, dancing, yeah it's all, not really dancing. Not what I consider dancing anyways. For this school dance, there were no dance battles, no b-boying, breakdancing in the middle. Nothing, like Step Up. Some dances could have these, but for this, nah, nah. For this, dancing's considered as basically moving your body according to the beat of the music. You don't even have to move your arms.
Just swivel or bounce your body side to side according to the beat. If you wanna use your hands, you could, throw up a gang sign or two, I don't know, heh. Just let it be known that, you do not need to know how to dance for these grind-y school dances. You do not have to worry about that. As for yiking, I think it's part of the culture right now. It's inevitable, here in California, in public schools (so not really counting religious schools, umm, etc). If you wanna yike, go ahead, just don't go crazy. As a reminder, you don't have to yike, it is not a rite of passage. If you wanna experience it, I'd say it's like a burst of adrenaline and excitement, people will be staring (that's a given). I've never yiked though, and uh, in my opinion, it's not, not something to write home about. Or, in a Newspaper article.
If you're dancing and looking at the time as to when the dance will end, it will be, the LONGEST, time of your life. The DJ mistakenly stopped the music at 10:00 PM 'cause he thought it was gonna end at 10:00 PM when the dance actually ends at 10:30 PM. Jk and I were pretty tired, Jh yiked a couple girls, both whom were like friends or sisters of a friend of his, of whom also approached him and was like "Dude, that's my sister!" Jk and I were dancing, waiting for it to end. a 30-minute mix is a lot longer than you'd think.
When it was finally over, we got our jackets from the coat check, went outside to the cool air, got in our car, stopped out In 'n' Out for a late night meal (dancing, err, swaying your body really does shed calories), and dropped us off home. I know that, for some people, dances are not their thing, and I could totally, totally see why. I'd agree too, but I'm here for the experience, and also for the idea of helping others out. If there's one thing I want somebody to get out of reading all of this, it's that you should not feel awkward at all, awkward in whatever you choose to do at a dance. Why? Because people feel the same way. They're thinking "Oh man, hopefully I'm dancing correctly" or "Shoot, do I look weird for just sitting here and drinking lemonade?" They're too busy worrying about looking awkward themselves, than for them to be worrying about other people looking awkward.
And so there you have it. Probably the most information you'll find on a school dance. Just remember that this was at a public school, and the dance was held at a place outside of the school. Schools and areas will vary, but I'm hoping that the things that happen here to me, are similar to those for others, so as to better, assist them. It's 2:00 in the afternoon, I got work but that ain't due 'till Monday, uhh, new, new tracks coming along, and uh, some relaxation. Came home at 12:00 AM last night even though the dance "ended" at 10:30 PM. Had the best, sleep though, I've had in a long time. Also the Discord buddies, yeah, they're active. Invited me for pho and pool yesterday but, I had the Winter Ball, so. Anyways, I'll, I'll see ya'll tomorrow.
