Dance Marathon

that. was. amazing. unbelievable. beautiful.

i'm so glad that i decided to do dm. and i'm so glad that meredith agreed to do it with me, even though she's done it before and she knows the horrors of it. here's us at the beginning, before the first 3-hour block...



mer said to title this, "when we still liked each other." but surprisingly, we didn't kill each other during the 30 hours. in fact, we were probably the most energetic people out there and we weren't really miserable at any point. i don't know how that happened, especially since my stomach hurt for 90% of the time (that pizza during the first block made both mer and me a little queasy, but my sickness lasted until the end ).

of course that wasn't the only thing that hurt. by the end, my back was sore (as usual), but the worst parts were my knees, shins, and feet. mer and i wanted to amputate our legs above the knee. so our bodies were breaking down, but our minds were perfectly clear and alert. it's true what people say, about dm being more mental than physical. as long as we kept ourselves pumped, the pain didn't matter.

some people asked me, "did you actually dance for 30 hours, or did you just stand and kind of sway?" well, mer and i DANCED. we couldn't stand to be in the middle of the crowd, because you could barely move. we stayed in the back where there was space, so we were free to twirl, run, and jump around. we head-banged to nirvana, salsa-ed to enrique, disco-ed to abba, and grooved to madonna. we looked like complete fools, but we didn't care. even if we didn't really like the music, we had to keep moving. because if i danced around like a maniac, the pain disappeared. it was when we were standing around, listening to speeches or watching videos, when it would all come rushing back. other people cheated and sat down during those times, but we resolutely stayed standing. our energy even shocked dm committee people. here we are, at the 18-hour mark...



we still looked ok, right? this was the "time warp" block, which was one of my favorites, since they played music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. and since i've been told that i should've been a child of the 70s, i wore my mom's yellow leather jacket and my aunt's purple sequined top. mer and i even participated in the fashion show and boogied down the runway. mid-afternoon was probably the roughest part of the marathon, but we pulled through to the last block...



that's us with meryl and eric, two of our primary dancing partners, at hour 28. of course, the last block was the best, with every song elliciting cheers from the crowd. i knew the words to all of them, even "blue," which was kind of embarrassing. and we did it all for the kids, or "da keedz," as our emcees would say. it was all worth it when we found out the grand total...



there was so much joy, it was exhilarating. unless you were there, you can't even imagine how we felt as we gave the checks to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Evanston Community Foundation, counted down to the 30-hour mark, and danced to "You Get What You Give" and "Time of My Life." it was a glorious time :)



after it was all over, mer and i were hurting so badly that we were walking like dinosaurs, hunched over and on our tip-toes. but ross picked us up, and i slept for twelve hours. at 2 today, i woke up and felt great, not even as sore as i would be after a rough day in ballet. i turned on some music while i was getting ready for the day, and i couldn't help but dance along. i still haven't gotten it out of my system.

the exhilaration has still not worn off. what a good way (along with the nstv preview show) to close the quarter, actually the last quarter of my senior year. i would've regretted not trying dm before i graduated. one girl from our house said, "this event was made for thuy-van." i loved it, and now i have so many more happy memories to look back on...

thank you to everyone who donated, visited, brought presents, and sent their best wishes!