Lords and ladies of the ball court.

Geez, Boston is cold, and so are all of its surrounding towns.

I moved back into school today. I mentioned I go to Tufts University in a previous entry-- Tufts isn't actually in Boston, it's in Medford/Somerville. Pretty aiight place, I guess.

Anyway, I really hate jackets-- back home in Jersey, I'd just walk around in hoodies and pray I didn't get sick. But, it's as if up here that won't even fly for a second-- I had on some thick stuff and man. Was I cold.

But yeah, go Tufts. Go Beantown.

Anyway, I should probably talk about stepping this time around.

It's funny, because even before I knew how to step, I knew what it was, at least-- granted, I'm urban/black and come from a semi-predictable upbringing, so I guess it being known to me shouldn't be peculiar. I guess I just assumed most Americans, especially those from like...semi-urban areas, would know what it was? But even here in school, I've had to explain to people what it was, and man. It just seemed weird to me at first.

I know a lot of females-- my family situation is really matriarchal, which I'll have to get to at another time. Even in grammar school, most of my friends were female, and it seemed like they all knew these little kiddy steps. And I picked 'em up and we played double dutch and other girly stuff, or whatever.

I guess that's really it for my step 'history'-- I knew what it was, and I knew like two little beats. But, when I came to Tufts as a prospective freshman in my senior year of high school, we had the Telescope program. I think nowadays it's changed in order to include white people, but when I went, it was geared towards minorities, and most of us were Black and/or Latino, I think. Telescope was like two or three days, and there was this big showcase of all of the minority performance groups on campus. It was pretty amazing. There was Turbo, the breakdancing group, Bhangra, the...Bhangra group, and blah blah. And of course there was Blackout-- actually, one of my hosts for Telescope was one of the captains at the time, and I remember being really impressed. I just remember them all being fit, or tall, or fit and tall[and all black, at the time] and it blew me away. Honestly, Blackout always tries to put on a serious show for Telescope to get the freshmen interested, with like long twenty-minute shows and stuff. So, the long strings of steps, the energy, and the outfits-- they were all dressed in like..SWAT gear; it was tough-- really got my attention. And then I saw them practicing and they looked so serious and stuff. I really didn't think I'd get on-- I think my main hangup was how much shorter I am than everyone else. Especially since they seemed to be about volume and energy, I really didn't think I'd get in.

This was my experience as a high school senior, and pretty much what sold me on Tufts. I mean, at the time, I was pretty sure I was gonna major in Philosophy[which is still..sorta true, I guess], and colleges can't really go wrong with Philosophy, can they? Come on. I didn't really take my college process too seriously-- I just went by how I felt about the campus and my visiting experience.

After I got my acceptance/rejection letters and eventually decided to come to Tufts, one of the first things on my mind was to look out for Blackout tryouts.

I really don't feel like telling the tryout story-- bottomline, I'm really competitive when I want something, but I also get pretty nervous, so it was definitely a battle. But I got on[Yay!], and oh man, that first week sucked. I got to my first practice like an hour late, so I had to catch up to the other new guys. And then I had this bizarre bout of paranoia wherein I thought I was getting kicked off[I SWEAR I heard them say my name] the team, but that turned out to be false. Eventually, I got into the swing of things, I think.

And now, it's a lot of fun.

Nah, I just like stepping-- it's active, and it's on a stage. And I love stages. And I really love stepping. So, there you go.

I was actually trying to make up a step over Winter Break, but I always wind up reusing beats. Once I get it down, though, maybe I'll video it and upload it to youtube.

It's actually one of the biggest reasons I'm excited to be back at Tufts-- I think we have a competition at Cornell coming up, too, and Cornell's really good. I also just miss practice; I feel like I haven't learned anything new for the past two months. Most of the learning went on last year; now that I'm an 'old guy', it's mainly review and remembering stuff.

There's this feeling when I get on stage-- I really do love stages[I used to do acting, and I really miss it, actually]. It's funny, because I'll be nervous as hell right until the show starts. But once it starts, I don't have the time to think about anything else-- it's just precision, energy, angles, keeping up, not speeding up. And more energy and precision. And there's really no feeling like just finishing a show, I think.

Oh man, I'm excited. Especially since some of my closest friends here joined the female step team, Envy, this semester. Sometimes we have performances in the same shows and I get to cheer them on-- for free, which is the best thing-- and vice versa. It's just great now that we all share an interest and whatnot.

Once again, I'm excited. Go Tufts!
[Except that I have class tomorrow. ARGH.]