This was my first dance (everyone show up at the school dance, not a paired off dance) I'd ever been to and I was scared to death. I stood in a circle with my friends during the fast songs and then sat like a true wall flower for the slow dances. One girl was brave enough to come up and ask me to dance. It wasn't that I didn't want to dance with her, I was just incredibly nervous. I fumbled around and eventually said, 'no thanks.' I basically told to her nope and looking back, I can see how much courage it must have taken as a 6th grader, probably at her first dance, to come ask a guy to dance. She probably also took it that I didn't think she was cute, which wasn't the case.

I had a pit in my stomach then, and it still bothers me when the subject of school dances comes up. I'm not sure what school dances will look like in a few years when my boys start going, but I will be telling them my experience and encourage them to dance with any girl that is brave enough to ask them to get on the dance floor for a slow song. And I'm also planning on inviting them to ask girls to dance that may not be asked as often as others.

So many things I wish I would have done different growing up. Being a nice person to everyone would be at the top.