Blossoming into the young black queen that I truly am, I was shy, chubby, and never really had the chance to get first dibs on something. If I got something my brother most likely had it first, and that could have been because he was older, but if we are talking about maturity I was alway more mature. I’ve been active all my life, I've played basketball, gymnastics, soccer, Track, swimming, softball, baseball, and field hockey. And I danced and cheered. Now dancing I never really had a strong passion for it but I have always enjoyed doing it.

I remember walking home with my best friend and we were talking with each other and expressing how nervous we both were. We then said that we would text each other to see what time we were going to meet up. Walking home is normally my time to think. I do my thinking best when it's cold outside but sunny. Therefore, this day it was exactly that. Later when I finally had reached my house, I felt really excited and all said to myself was,” Oh My Gosh, this is really happening.” Though that was not my first middle school dance performance, it was what I know now was my last. As time tended to get further and further, tik and tok away, I began to feel more and more excited, I then asked myself how I was going to handle all of my excitement, and two minutes later I was sound asleep. I had my timer set for 4:00 so that I would have enough time to get dressed and get myself together, and before I knew it, it was 4:00. I then hopped like a bunny and got in the shower, then did my hair and had gotten my clothes together. And then it was 5:30, I texted Mya and told her I would be at the corner at 5:40.

It was 15 minutes to six and me and Mya had arrived at the school. When we walk into the front of the building we see many of our friends. We were all very excited and nervous. So later after we all got settled, and they gave us the rooms in which we were going to be changing and going back and forth between. But walking to our rooms you begin to see everyone and there were a lot of people. And what came with the people was must. Meanwhile I am still feeling nervous, mainly not because of the performance but because of the high schoolers. I wanted them to know that yes I am Malachi’s little sister but I can do better and more than he did in middle school, and I have a spot in high school. Therefore, it was almost time for us to do our thing, and do what we had come to do. Then soon ur dance teacher came into the room and told us,” Even if you forget a dance move, keep dancing, and DRINK A LOT OF WATER TO STAY HYDRATED.”

First dance to go was African, we were feeling really confident, and we were hydrated but still a little nervous. We were the second group to perform. Two minutes later we heard our names called and as soon as we knew it we were on the stage. It was dark and you could just see lots of people and the crowd was filled, but could not tell who was in the audience. “Lets go Lani!” “Lets go TT!” that's all that you hear people in the crowds yelling our name. Then the music starts and everyone is in the right place and has the right movements. Then sooner or later we were done, there were a few mistakes here and there, but everyone did great. “Three more dances left to go!!” Jada said as we were heading back into our dressing room. After we got dressed and changed into our strips for modern dance which was our jazz dance, we went to the cafeteria which is where the high schoolers were watching us, and making sure that we weren't too loud. Minutes had gone past, and the lineups were going really fast. Though we weren't rushing much because we had several more groups to go before we perform.

After waiting 5 minutes, it was finally our turn to perform jazz. This dance was really confusing and has a lot of tricks and more difficult moves, and it was the type of dance that you can tell when someone makes a mistake because once you miss a move and are no longer on the same beat and dance move as the others it was easy to spot. As a result, in the end we all did a very good job. The girls were surprised that we did so well because when it was coming to the end of the rehearsal and it was time to perform we still had mistakes and no one wanted to be embarrassed, and mess up in front of family and friends. The next dance was a really sentimental dance due to how many have died from occasion. Cancer is a really life changing disease and many have died from it. So out of all of the dances we really had to do good on this one so it could touch someone's heart as it has touched us dancers.

After finishing the Cancer dance, was our last and final dance which was hip-hop, instead of doing a regular hip hop dance that everyone does, we did vogue, and voguing is a very fun dance. Vouging originated in the 60’s and was created by African American and latino’s that were gay. It was their own spice of dance culture that no one could take away from them.

All in all, I choose this memory because this meant a lot to me. As an example in 2018-2019, my seventh grade school year I was also in dance and I looked up to some of the eighth graders and how much privilege they had. And all I said to myself was, " This is gonna be you next year.” Which it was, for half of the year. I was also looking forward to the Spring showcase, but now I won’t get that, due to this pandemic, and it has taught me that you should never take things for granted. I remember waking up at 5:00 and dreading school, really hating it. But now, on the other hand I wanna go to school. I haven't seen my friends in 2 months. And along with no Spring Showcase, we have no formal, no graduation, and now they are saying that our summer could be taken away too. The showcase has taught me confidence, dedication, teamwork, hard work, and memorization.