Entry to high school will befall each of you. It will be astonishingly sooner than expected by your parents. It may feel as if the day would never arrive for you. (Papa recalls the year getting from the 4th grade to the 5th seemed like an eternity.) Once in high school you will be exposed to an avalanche of activities. One activity that may cause some anxiety is the school dance. What to wear? Am I expected to dance? Will I look the fool if I do dance? What do I do or where do I stand if I don’t dance? The entire student body will undoubtedly stare at me the entire night.
Don’t fret. You are a Freshman. Soon you will be an old hand at school mixers. Even the painfully shy will adjust, make friends and figure out an individual comfort level. The purpose is to become at ease with socialization. When you reach upper class status you’ll know that no one stares at 9th graders; they ignore them. So, go to your high school functions. Endure any anxieties you self-create and have fun. Sadly, the four years will go by faster than you think. Enjoy every minute of it.
Papa was one of those too shy characters. But, most of us have a brain and it can be sorted out. Listening to a CD from a recent high school reunion, an old song from 1958 struck a chord with me. “Over And Over Again” The lyrics begin with…”went to a dance the other night”. It hit home for me. But it’s message includesthat one keeps going…over and over again. (BTW: The flip side of that record was a song your parents knew from their days as fans of the Brew Crew…”Rocking Robin.”)