The End and New Beginning

our new team showcase

About three fourths of this entire year, I hated Golden Girls. I was unhappy, loosing love for dance, but most importantly felt useless to the team. I made my mom promise to me that no matter what I said, not to let me try out again. For months I contemplated whether or not to try out again. 95% of me said no, but there was still that 5% that said yes.

It was the beginning of April, all events were basically done and it was time to practice for our Spring Showcase. Every year the Golden Girls have two showcases. One in the fall to show off what we’ve got this year and usually during parents weekend so they can see how hard we have been working. And another in the spring. This one is the most important because it is always the Friday before tryouts. This show lets all girls and guys come to see what we’re made of and mostly to intimidate them. I remember watching the Spring Showcase the night before I tried out for the first time…And let me tell you, the intimidation works. By the night, my passion and love for dance had come back to me. I realized that although for football and basketball games, all I may be doing is kicking my leg and chanting “GO NOLES”, but I do that because I am spirited. I cannot forget about dancing, that’s how it got me on this team in the first place. The show was amazing. I was in many more dances than the Fall Showcase, and it was fun actually being on the stage this time rather than watching what I could be. My favorite dance was choreographed by my dear friend Rachael for her mother who has been fighting cancer. It was a very passionate song, and each of the dancers represented a word from the lyrics; “I run for HOPE, I run to FEEL, I run for TRUTH and for all that is REAL. I run for your MOTHER, your SISTER, your DAUGHTER, your WIFE, I run for you and me my friends… I run for LIFE”. It was so amazing to be a part of this special moment between Rachael and her mother.

We didn’t have much time to sleep before the next morning came bright and early. It was first day of try outs and it was very strange being already on the team. All of the team at that time wore our “Fear the Spear- Golden Girls” tank tops for the learning portion, and then we blended with the rest of the girls for the rest of the day. First cuts were short and sweet, basically just trimming off the top that really just didn’t belong there. Second cuts were the most excruciating. First cuts took a total of 6 hours going two girls at a time. It was a jazz dance to Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. Let’s just say I hope I never hear that song again. Next cuts was just the Hip Hop dance to Black Eyed Peas- “Imma Be”. Although I was much more confident with the Hip Hop piece, I completely blacked out in the middle of the routine and couldn’t pick up the choreography. I looked ridiculous standing next to a girl trying out doing better than I was. After a night of crying and determining to redeem myself the next day, I was ready. I redeemed myself in Hip Hop as I did it perfectly and also completely re did my improve choreography for my jazz dance. I felt so relieved. As they put the final 30 girls in a line to look at our appearances, I was starting to feel that nervousness come back. That next cut broke down my entire team. We lost a freshman rookie, our ballerina of the group, Lexi. It was a devastating sight to us all, and crushed everyone. The nervousness just grew, especially hearing the next decision. I, along with 6 other girls was chosen to do our contemporary solo we created to so to say, dance for our lives. Right as I ended my solo I ran back behind the curtain and just broke down, hoping that was enough to save me. After all I had done this year, and finally decided that I couldn’t lose Golden Girls because it was a part of my life now, I wasn’t going to let it slip through my hands that easily. About an hour later after much deliberation, the judges came back and announced our new 2010-2011 team... And I was a part of it. It was the most relieving thing to hear my number be called. My solo definitely reassured my coaches that Saturday’s tryout was a fluke and it reminded them of my talent. Even Assistant Coach Rasheedah said “your solo was so great and so beautiful, I cried. Thank you”.

And so my rookie year ended. And I was now officially a Vet. Let a new year begin.

Basketball

Although the basketball season had already begun, we only have played in few actual ACC games. After Nationals we had a little time to relax and only focus on basketball. To my surprise I danced at almost every basketball game in the season. It was great. I became more confident in the dances and cheers and really got to enjoy my time as a Golden Girl for the first time. It was almost time for the ACC tournament, and that meant 10 girls were going to be allowed to go all the way to Greensboro, North Carolina for the game. I was determined to be one of those 10 girls. Although it was over our spring break, it would be a great opportunity to really bond with the team and travel with the basketball team. Turns out that I was one of the 10 initial girls to go before few dropped out. I was ecstatic. So I packed up from home and headed back up to Tallahassee to get on an 11 hour bus ride with the band up to Greensboro. It was an all expenses paid trip to stay in a very nice hotel, right across from a great mall. My roommate was Annie, which was a great match. Unfortunately, we did lose our first game the second night in Greensboro, putting the Golden Girls and Band back on the bus home while the basketball team got a nice flight. That wasn’t the end to our basketball season. Next comes the NCAA tournament. Luckily our Seminoles did so great that we made it into the tournament to Buffalo, NY. It was probably the greatest trip and experience of my life. We left on a Wednesday when the first game wasn’t even until Saturday night. While the basketball team was practicing up for the game, the Golden Girls and the Band got to do so many fun things. All of us went skiing and snowboarding, saw Niagara Falls, and ate at “The Anchor Bar”, the home of the original buffalo chicken wing. The amount of people and cameras around the game was indescribable. Although we lost our game, the awaiting Syracuse fans for their game really loved us. They actually “booed” when we had to put our jackets on for half time, and cheered when we came back and took our jackets off in a new uniform. Sad about losing our game, we all just gathered in rooms and hung out the rest of the night. Best part about leaving? We got our own private flight with the team back home. I will never forget this basketball season.

Nationals

The start of the second semester of my freshman year was a hectic one. We got one week of normal school, and the next we were off to Orlando to compete at UDA Nationals. The bus ride took us 6 hours, but we finally made it to the resort in Disney. On a bus with the Golden Girls and the FSU cheerleaders was definitely a tiring one, but the minute we got to the hotel, we put our stuff down and went outside to find a place to practice our routines. Problem, lots of rain. We ended up practicing and going over corrections in the small but available space next to the elevators until about 1 am. The next day was semi finals. All nervous but ready to work my team mentally prepared themselves for the first round. Meanwhile, I and the other non dancer of the weekend Annie were in charge of spirit with all of our signs and spear shaped noise makers ready to watch our team on stage. Although we witnesses some minor mistakes, we made it to finals the next day. That night was just like the one before, practicing until we couldn’t anymore. Although we were more focused on the Jazz dance, Hip Hop was also a very strong point of ours, but the judges didn’t seem to have liked it as much as we thought. Semi finals ranked us 6th in Jazz and 12th in Hip Hop. That was not ok with us. The final day came and we killed our routines. I couldn’t not have been happier for my team. Through all the tears and time practicing, we placed 3rd in Jazz and ended up jumping 6 spots in Hip Hop ranking 6th. The next day we were awarded with a day at Disney. It couldn’t have been a more perfect weekend.

December; a month of holidays, a month of midterms, and a month of non-stop practice. This was a pretty rough month for me personally. The first week of December, I was rushed to the Thagard Health Center on campus and immediately hooked up to I.V.s. It took three days to run multiple tests, but the conclusion of this horrible sickness was Strep type C. The difference between normal people strep and Strep type C; it is usually found in animals. To this day we still don’t know how I contracted this virus, but it was pretty bad. I had a continuous fever from 102-103 for three days and was not allowed to go to classes. Perfect timing since mid terms were the next week, right? Luckily I passed my midterms with flying colors. So now time for Christmas break?!? WRONG! Instead of moving out of the dorms to go home, all of the Golden Girls packed up, and moved into other Golden Girls’ apartments for the next two weeks. It was time to practice for Nationals coming in January. Unfortunately only 14 girls can be in each the jazz and hip hop dances. So who was left out of both? I was. For two weeks I got to go to three a day practices; 6am, 1pm and 6 pm, to sit and watch my team make up and create our nationals dances. Last year at UDA Nationals, we placed 2nd in the nation, and was determined to stay in that place, or close to it. Although this time with the team did create a great bond between Kaitlin, Holly, Annie, Amarylis, Gabby and myself, it was time to finally go home December 21st. We got a total of 9 days at home seeing as the rookies were the ones doing the New Years Eve Basketball game. Happy New Years.

Football Season

For the second year ever, the Golden Girls cheered and danced at the football games. Although Florida State football at the moment wasn't very well known for its talent, we had Bobby Bowden; all american football legend. It was a season full of practices and work outs seeing as we would be in our uniforms (aka very small tummy showing tops) in front of thousands of fans, but most importantly our peers. As seniorority goes, the vets of course are chosen first over the rookies and only about 10 girls could be on the field at a time. So just how many games was I awarded my rookie year? One. Just one. So what, yeah I was a rookie... So why did kaitlin, a rookie, get to do every single stinking game?? The rule was as followed; each rookie would get at least one game plus more depending on how well they knew the material. Let's just say I definitely knew my material, and well! When a girl didn’t necessarily want to do a game, they could ask off and an alternate would then step in at the last minute. I wasn’t chosen to be an alternate even except for one game. Any time someone stepped out last minute, I was always the first to respond, but never was chosen. So November came around and I finally got to do my one football game. My entire family drove up to come and watch me, which was a big deal considering over have are die hard Florida Gator fans. I had a blast, it was everything I imagined it would be. Too bad it was the last game of the entire season…. So the unfairness begins.

Freshman 10

The beginning of a new team means new friends to connect of all ages. Our new team consisted of 5 Seniors, Jennifer (captain), Holly (rookie), Dani (vet), Jenny (vet), and Mackenzie (vet), 3 juniors, Rachael (vet), Brittany (vet), and Michelle (vet), 3 sohpomores, Christina (vet), Liz (vet), and Annie (rookie). Then came the Freshman 10, all rookies; Carly, Emily, Sami, Lexi, Kaitlin, Kendra, Amarylis, Gabby, our boy Ellyot and myeslf. That being said, pretty much half the team were freshmen, who had a lot to learn about ourselves and about eachother. Just because you put 21 of the best dancers at an tryout, doesn't mean that they will all get along... And thats just what we all learned. I was a giant challenge for us all to get along and know eachothers personalities. I struggled very much to fit in with some of our South Florida/Miami girls Sami, and Emily but I eventually learned to love them for who they are. At one point in the first semester, the Vets were more than fed up with all of us rookies not being able to get along and all 10 freshmen were forced into a room and locked in to work out all of our problems. We all learned a great amount about each other and about everyones personalities. Through the stress of it all, we did lose Ellyott, but he is still around and will always be there for us. There were tears, there was laughter, and although we didn't fix every single problem out, we eventually learned to love one another.

6AM

About two weeks after making the team, I was officially accepted to Florida State University. The summer came and went, and it was time to start my first year of college and be a Golden Girl. This required waking up at 5am for 6am practices. Luckily another Golden Girl and my best friend Kaitlin lived in the dorm next to me, so we both made sure we were awake and ready for the day. Every Monday we had a 6am practice at a YMCA 20 minutes off campus to accommodate where my Coach Wendy lived in SouthWood. We would all show up in basically our pajamas, no makeup, rushing to be on time. If you were late to a 6am practice, you had to run stadiums. The system was just being late in general is one stadium, every minute after that was another stadium. One stadium run required you run all the way up the stadium stairs (about 80-90 depending on where in the stadium you ran) and walk down. Let’s just say, not many people were late. 6am practices were usually low key with some stretching and technique across the floor work. When a volleyball game came around, or football game, depending on how well we did determined how much practice we needed. Sometimes we would end up having 2 or 3 6am practices because of our poor performance, and tensions started to rise with the rookies and the veterans. Being a rookie was a hard job to do when you had 10 vets breathing down your back about being perfect so 6am practices were avoided. I’m not quite sure how I made it through these 6am practices, nor do I know how I will accomplish it again.