Taco Fest

It was a late January afternoon. The stress of finals had been lifted off of thousands of Trevians shoulders. I walked briskly through the halls of the gyms, headed downstairs. I approached the door of my classroom, and suddenly nervousness overwhelmed me. I open the door slowly snuck my way into Beginning Dance. Thankfully I saw some familiar faces and sat down with them, but the awkwardness of being the only guy in the class would not recede. I began to feel nervous as the teacher took attendance because she didn’t call out another male name except mine. To make matters worse my teacher decided to address the class as, “Ladies and Walter” and every time she said that all eyes were on me as if I was farted out loud. Being a guy in that class was intimidating at first, and for many reasons. To be a guy taking dance, comes with many assumptions from people. In high school, students feel that dance is a feminine thing to do, and a “real man” would never have a thought of even enrolling cross his mind, but I don’t believe in that stereotype.

Showing up to dance class was an intimidating thing to do because I was the only guy in a class full of girls including the dance instructor! I had no other guy with which to confer with, so I was on my own. I needed another guy in the class so I could feel normal when I couldn’t stretch as far as the majority of the girls could. Oddly enough, I had to suck up the pain and keep it to myself because no one else was complaining and I felt obligated to be tougher than all my classmates or else I would feel ashamed to show my weak side to a room full of estrogen.

I had never felt this lonely in my life. Every time class ended, I had to keep my feelings to myself and I really wanted to share them with someone, but I knew no one would understand. It was so hard