Disco Rules!
I have been procrastinating about writing about high school. I know I need to do it because it is sitting in the path of my writing. It is an overwhelming hole I dug deep inside myself so tightly packed full of every shard and scrap of secret pain, anger, shame, judgement from that time that I can’t separate the thousands of experiences from each other. It was a numb, silent and heavy, erasing names and dates and details. This was for survival, for daily amnesia, to have hope. I now understand it was not small even if other folks have had much worse experiences. These are mine and it matters. Writing them feels too real, no longer secret. The contents of this hole are my thoughts during quarantine.
Part of my procrastination has been binge-watching TV and last night, around 1am, I discovered the HBO show “We’re Here”, a show about three friends who are drag queens, traveling across country while bringing drag to smallish towns, conservative places and bringing the lgbtq+ and allies community together via drag shows. Life is better with drag! It helped open that space I was procrastinating about.
Drag is about larger than life, brash, unapologetic, out loud and that is the exact opposite of the culture I grew up in Long Island, NY. The show reminded me of my secret pain of dimming my own light for the mediocre to rule, for the kids with money but no originality to shine. And I loved dancing but this was not cool at all. I loved disco at a time when kids would shout at dances “Disco sucks, Rock rules.” It seems funny and a small thing but it hurt. Dancing and disco felt like part of my soul. Rock is just not as fun to dance to, IMHO.
By the time my senior prom rolled around, I was determined to have a great time, the best time. I asked a super fun friend to be my prom date. He was an amazing dancer and lived in a town next to mine. No one knew him because we didn’t go to the same high school, which was perfect. The dj played disco most of the night! We non-stop danced the whole night! Hands down, the best night of my entire high school experience. Thank you, Tommy ❤. You totally rocked my prom. Disco rules!
Note: written for the group, Life In The Time Of Covid. Theme “Secrets” Maximum 400 words.
