At first, I didn’t want to go to dance practice, but as it continued I grew to like it. At most dance practices, we would start a little late. We also got snacks, ice cream, and sometimes dinner. Dinner consisted of sandwiches, noodles, or pizza. We practiced in the wood room at first, but we eventually moved up to the cafeteria. We had two routines-one with just my group and another with everyone. For the first dance, we used normal fans to dance. On the other hand, for the second, we had to use long fans. They were over 4 feet long! We practiced for about a month and then we had to perform.

On the day of the performance, I woke up at 4:30 AM. I took a shower and got everything ready. I went to church and I got there at 6:20 AM. That was the time the nuns told us to come, but of course I was the first. We reviewed our dances and then we went to change. I got the outfit that said my name. It was written in all capitals, which I thought was weird, but didn’t think much of it. When I went to the bathroom to put it on, it didn’t fit at all! Even though it said my name, the skirt was too long, and the dress was too small and tight. I ran back to the changing room and I told a nun. She said that it was fine and to try this one on and she handed me another dress. I went to try on the dress and it fit perfectly. I think someone accidentally wrote my name on the wrong dress. When I went back, I saw another skirt hanging on the rack that said my name. This one fit even better than the dress. It was just my size. They redid my hair and curled my bangs. They wanted to put makeup on me, but I said “No thank you”. It was very chaotic in the room but in the end, we got everything done. We went to the quad room to practice more after everyone was done. Then we went upstairs to start dancing. Or so I thought. It turns out we were walking the parade around the church first. Then we were dancing. During the first dance, everything went according to plan. On the second dance, some people didn’t have the right fans because we ran out. To make things worse, my hat kept falling off. It was terrible, but it was OK. After the dance, everyone took off their outfits and went home. All in all I would love to dance again.