I looked around the dance floor at the wildly flailing 20-somethings vibrantly moving and singing to the Katy Perry song that was blaring through the nearby speakers. High heels had already been thrown alongside the venue’s walls where flowers and table decorations had fell during the enthusiastic celebration. Among the faces of young adults spotlighted in yellow lights was a group of people who I had come to know over the course of 10 years. I laughed as we brought back terrible dance moves that no sane person would attempt in public.
“I think I’m bringing back the shopping cart, you guys,” I said raising my hand from the imaginary shopping cart to grab the invisible grocery product. I managed to carefully place the product in the cart.
A friend who was happily twisting her hips in the washing machine motion had screamed. “Ah! Prom!”
I couldn’t help but think back seven years ago to a sweaty night of teenagers awkwardly dancing in formal wear. It seemed like yesterday that these adults, that were comically moving around me on the dance floor, were just the kind high school classmates that had to pick me up and drop me off in their cars because I hadn’t gotten my driver’s license yet. However, that day, we were celebrating one of those friend’s wedding in the beautiful city of Santa Barbara.
It was seeing one of my dear friends all dressed in white and standing next to her new husband on top of a windy mountain that gave me brief pause. I could feel a little droplet of a happy cry form in the corner of my eye. I couldn’t help but simultaneously see the same girl with the ridiculously long blonde hair sitting off to the side of me in my Geometry class and wondering, what person in their right mind would want to drink hot coffee with their lasagna?
It took me another moment to realize that my group of crazy, yet loving, friends and I were all grown up, and tried to cherish every moment with them afterwards on the dance floor. I knew that after we departed from the sun kissed sands of Central Coast, that we have to go our separate ways all over the globe back to our normal adult lives. I smiled any way, because in that instant, we were still dancing at our senior prom under the twirling strobe lights.
Jazzed About Stuff 