PLATINUM

Dance is a significant part of my life. Has been for seven years. I've been a part of the competition team for that long, too. The highest a dance can earn is Diamond. From high to low, the awards are: diamond, high platinum, platinum, high gold, gold, high silver, silver, high bronze, and bronze. You have to really suck to get bronze. Like, you stood stiff and did nothing the entire time. In my team's career, we never got more than gold. Once, we got high gold. But today? We earned platinum in both dances. That's amazing. And not only that, but those dances earned a special award, and they won 1st runner up and 1st in our age category.

Next year is my eighth and final year, seeing as I'm going to college afterwards. It's nice to go out with a bang, even though I know we still have a year left.

And then my dad and grandma were there, yelling and embarrassing me (I secretly like it. Don't tell them). And my mom was there without Ron. Unstressful at last. And then TJ showed up, and I just felt so alive and loved at the end of my last performance.

Dance has been my outlet and escape for so long. I don't know what I'd do without it. I've known the girls in my class for half my life. I've grown up with them. You can't get a connection like that anywhere else. They may annoy me to no end with their immaturity and ignorance, but we're practically family. And tonight, we earned all those awards together.

I love my team.

Love,
Caitlyn