I was one of those kids that never stopped moving. I honestly couldn’t sit still. Good thing my mom decided to put that energy to good use, and sign me up for dance when I turned two. Little did I know that, over the years, (13 years of dance to be exact) not only would dance become the thing I love most, but it would bring me the people I love most. My dance friends, or as I like to call them, my forever family. I call them my family because that’s what they are to me. I’m going to give you a few reasons why.

1. My forever family and I know more about each other than probably necessary. My dance friends are the only people I would willingly spend five hours with in a day. Sometimes 20 or more hours on convention or competition weekends.

2. Dancers are weird. Very weird, but it feels normal when I’m with these guys. They are the only ones I feel absolutely no shame around. (I mean, we’ve seen each other naked so there’s no coming back after that).

3. Because even after sweating profusely, you’ll never be denied a hug. In fact, rubbing sweat on each other was not uncommon.

4. When faced with weird costumes, instead of making fun of each other, we pose for photo opportunities.

5. We’ve danced around the world together, bringing a dose of our craziness to each new place we visited.

6. The family is always down to get food. Always. No rehearsals needed.

7. Sleepovers will always be a thing, considering they started as naps in the studio.

7. Even after choosing to go to universities all over the country, we’ve never lost touch. Our group chat never ends.

8. These dancers are my forever family, simply because they are my people.

If you were a dancer, I hope you were fortunate enough to have a forever family too. Odds are that you do. I can’t imagine not having them in my life, and I hope I never have to. Shoutout to Emack, Liza, Kat, Maddy, Kdog, and Swish. I love you.