Growing up I never quite understood the adage “dance like nobody is watching.” Isn’t somebody always watching? Maybe not a big-brother figure, but naturally there must be some stranger you’ve never met secretly judging you from a distance, right? That’s certainly what I thought when I went to Giants Stadium (now MetLife Stadium) for my first ever concert. Admittedly, I was 11 and with my dad, but what if he judged me for knowing every P!nk song or Aaron Carter lyric? I don’t think my 6th grade heart would have survived it. Though, I have to admit, I did go all out for Bon Jovi, because really, who wouldn’t?
Fast forward more than a decade and I’m at my second ever concert, this time in the fields of Tennessee. Initially I was a bit hesitant about showing off my particular brand of graceless dance moves with the thousands of strangers around me, but then I noticed that everybody was too busy doing their own thing to watch me attempting to do mine. It was while singing “Hey Jude” with Paul McCartney and 80,000 of my new best friends, all of us in tears, that I realized it’s not a question of whether or not people are watching as much as it’s about being yourself no matter what.
Now when I go to music festivals I embrace the shared heartbeat of the crowd (also known as the bass line) and dance exactly how I want to dance, regardless of who’s watching.
PS. Excluding this post-script, this blog post is exactly 250 words (much like our supplement essays!).