The Worst Night of my Life and Lessons Learned

Article #3, Published February 25, 2017 by Eli Wasson

A quote for the read:

"You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it."
- Benjamin Mee, We Bought a Zoo (2011)

This is by far my most favorite quote of all time. It speaks so truly to me because I am a very shy guy when it comes to talking to a girl I have a crush on - that is, if I was able to talk to girls. Last night my school held the 19th annual Swing Central dance at the local country club. The Swing Central dance is basically a big fundraiser for the Jazz band program. To give you an idea of what it looks like, everyone dances with their partner(s) on the open floor while the band plays different types of jazz.

That is everyone... but me. This year marks the second year of me wasting away at my supposed-to-be-fun teen years. Both this year and last year I spent the entire night at the dance just leaning against the doorway watching all my other fellow students dancing and having fun. It was really hard to stand there and watch, knowing that they were all having the time of their lives while I stood by and did nothing with nobody. The reason I kept on standing there and didn't leave was because I wanted to punish myself for not going in onto the floor by watching others have fun. But what was really hard was that the girl I love was dancing with her new boyfriend that she got a little more than a month ago. I watched them all night dancing, with her head resting against his shoulder.

I even had high hopes for this year at the dance! Last year I was a freshman who didn't really know anybody so that was the main reason I didn't dance. But over this year I have made many new friends so I thought I would get somewhere. I have had a crush on this girl since the beginning of my current sophomore year and in my many fantasies I thought she liked me too. I was really hoping that something would happen between me and her before this dance so that I actually had someone to dance with.

What made it even worse was that I had many friends come to me and pat me on the shoulder or something and telling me to come on in and dance. One thing that a friend said really stuck out to me. With the band playing at full blast and students dancing in the background, he said:

"Hey, why don't you come dance? Come on! I haven't danced in like two years and look at me, I'm sweating! Just go out there and ask someone to dance - they won't say no! Are you gonna go out there?"

I told him I'd think about it, which really meant that I wouldn't. He patted me on my back and said, "Okay but you better hurry up, the band is about to end." Then he went back to the middle and went on with his dancing. I now count about six people who told me to dance.

So even with all the people telling me to go out and dance to the jazz music, for some reason I did not. I still can't understand why. It's just like there was something inside of me keeping me from moving away from that stupid doorway. If I could go back in time, I would probably dance. Now that's obviously easier said than done but I think I would do it. Now I have to go back to school on Monday facing the humiliation of all the people who kept looking at me not dancing while they were that entire night. So the moral of the story is that if you're ever in a situation like I was, you can either go home hating yourself for about three months later or you can go home satisfied with yourself about being someone you never knew you were for one night.

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I'm a 16-year-old sophomore in high school. I've figured out that Steemit is a great way to express my feelings about certain topics and get paid for it! I like to start all my articles with a quote to get the reader to understand the 'feeling' of the article before they start reading it.

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