The World Was Dancing

It seems like recently everything is falling apart (as it should during the teen years). But I feel like nothing is coming together as it should. Oddly enough, and very unrelated, I am required to read Things Fall Apart for history... Anyways.... I've been busy and haven't posted in a while. So I owe you. So here is this... an assignment though it turned out to be more of a life confession. The last stanza is taken from the song "The World Was Dancing" in JRB's Songs for a New World ... you should all listen to the song. I feel like the lines from the song "But then I thought, I can't this can't be right, because dreams get burnt down overnight. I wasn't quite prepared to choose, to take that risk and maybe lose..." really depict my view on life, coincidently I like dance so the title works as well.

The World Was Dancing
I was 7-years-old until last year.
While other young girls
were kissing boys and wearing make-up,
I sat and listened to my friends
talk about StarWars
as if it were real.
I would pretend with my friends
we were in a galaxy far far away,
while other young girls
were dieting or dating.
While other girls were dating boys,
I was talking to them about
Artemis Fowl and the Pythagorean theory.
I was like the third wheel in life
being dragged behind,
neither resisting nor giving in.

Last year, I wanted a change.
So I left my friends,
who still play make-believe,
and went off to boarding school
thinking the young girls would act older.
I tried to catch up with everyone,
to stay true to myself,
but stop playing make-believe.
Instead, I turned 27.
I turned into a 27-year-old
Harvard Law student
with tunnel vision toward a steady life
who took life seriously at 21
has no real friends
studies all day and all night
and still isn’t the best of the class.

I don’t wear make-up,
date boys, go to dances,
procrastinate, gossip,
talk on the phone all night,
have lots of friends, watch television,
listen to pop music, diet,
care what everyone else thinks,
look pretty, or perfect.
I buy my clothes from Gap,
burst into song and dance,
know more about the ’90s than the ‘00s
get ahead in school, have dessert,
purposely clash, read books,
have chapped lips, take everything seriously,
hate making work “fun”, think big picture,
get along with my mother, and father.

I’m not quite prepared to choose,
To take a risk and maybe lose…
And the world was dancing.