School Dances

The other day at work, I heard a Bryan Adams song on the radio and it made me want to slow dance at arms length apart. The first time I ever danced with anyone was my 8th grade year of middle school. It's not that I had never been to dances before. It's just that I always politely declined when a boy actually asked me. My first actual school dance was in 6th grade and I was terrified. Of course, I wanted to be asked to dance but I wanted to be asked by the right person.

Here's a freebie boys, no matter how often a preteen girl tells you how gross you are, she means the exact opposite. In fact, the grosser she claims you to be, most likely the cuter she thinks you are. (Unless your name is Slater Moody, Jonathan Guy, or Brian Maltry )...I really did think you were all super gross and I still have nightmares of you chasing me on the playground. [insert exaggerated shiver here].

The first boy who asked me to dance, I told "no thank you" and later found out he was crying in the boys bathroom. (I am still so sorry for this D.J. Thank you for putting this behind you and for friending me on Facebook.) I didn't mean anything by it. I just didn't want to dance with him; didn't want to lead him on in any way. I had a firm belief that if you danced with someone, it automatically made you a candidate for a serious relationship. I never liked playing the game. This theory of mine carried on drastically through my teens and early twenties. I always felt like I had to work so hard in a relationship because I didn't want any of it to be in vain. The thought never occurred to me that it was OK to just go out on one or two dates with a person and end it there.

I never claimed to be normal and I stand by this.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. My first dance was with Matt Lewis and he did ask me, considering I would have never ever had the nerve to actually confront him and ask him myself. I later found out that my best friend at the time had told him I liked him and that he should ask me to dance.


I. Was. Mortified.


And she ceased being my best friend for at least a day. If I could only go back and tell that little girl how truly oblivious she was. Reguardless of the fact that someone else told him to ask me, he still didn't have to, but he did anyway. AND, he danced with me during the whole song, LESS than a full arms length a part.


Scandilous, I know.


But not everyone got to dance a full dance with someone. Andrew told me on one of our first dates that he had asked a girl to dance to Extremes "More Than Words". During the middle of the song, she told him she didn't want to dance with him anymore and left him standing there alone on the dancefloor. When he told me this,  my heart broke for little Andrew and I immediately found the song on my iTunes and asked him to dance with me. (I know what you're thinking, "Oh, Mary. You are so sweet." Or perhaps, "Really? You have Extreme on your iTunes?...." Don't judge me.)



Everyone deserves to dance the full length of a song.


I hated the girl for doing that to him and I don't even know her. I at least had the decency at that age to simply tell a boy "no" instead of getting his hopes up.

Stupid bitch.


Now, when I hear certain songs, I think back to the days of school dances and all of the "he likes, she likes" crap. It all seemed so important back then. Still, it's nice to reminisce. More so, it's nice to finally have someone to dance with, knowing that neither one of us, will ever say"no thank you".



"More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
'Cause I'd already know" 
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