Graduating from high school and moving away to college forces you to sacrifice a lot of things; some you never thought you’d miss as much as you do and some you knew you’d miss more than anything. For dancers, after graduating we’re often stuck in this weird, sad place where we know that we can continue dancing in college and still sometimes go to conventions with the studio we grew up in, but we will never be able to be considered a student at conventions or compete on stage with our team again. Although we are technically still allowed to register for convention classes, a lot of dancers who graduated from the competition kid lifestyle and go off to college don’t have time to come home on the weekends to go to them. There are certain aspects of spending the weekend in hotel ballrooms with your dancing family that, in college, you begin to realize that you might not ever experience again, and here are just a few of them that I miss more than I can explain.

1. Waking up before the sun to dance all day

Yes, I can’t believe I said it earlier, but like my mom always said, “You can never get up early for school, but you’re always up on time when it’s for dance.” Sorry, academic teachers but, it’s true. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting up, still tired as hell, but knowing you’re about to do what you love for basically the rest of the day.

2. Eating lunch on the floor in a big circle with my team

Some people may be grossed out at the idea of eating on the floor but, when you’re shaking and sweaty and know that you only have a half an hour to eat something, gathering around with your friends to talk about your experiences from classes during the day and eat some food to keep you going through your next few hours of dancing is the best.

3. Connecting with dancers from other studios during classes

Seeing a dancer feeling a combination with all of their soul is one of the best, most inspiring things to witness, especially when it’s 3 feet in front of you and you can hear the heavy breathing and sometimes feel the sweat flying off of them and onto you. Complimenting that person often leads to a little conversation about what studio you’re both from and you kind of end up talking all day in between combination groups dancing and before you know it, you’ve found a friend in a person who shares the same passion as you do and you’ve experienced one of the most priceless things in life: truly connecting with a fellow artist.

4. Holding your bags with all of your costumes, shoes and dancewear to leave at the end of classes on Sunday while you have that recap of the weekend, goodbye talk with your team and teachers

This often lasts way longer than you were expecting it to but there’s just so much to talk about. It’s almost as if you weren’t going to see all of them at the studio the very next day.

5. The overwhelming soreness of waking up on Monday morning

Dancing all day, each day for a whole weekend takes quite the toll on your body, but there’s something so incredibly satisfying about waking up after it’s all over and still being able to feel the movement and passion physically on your body for days to come.