I came back early Sunday morning to see that my dancers seemed a little down. One of them was very cold and was complaining of pain in his knee, and the other was exhausted and his feet were in so much pain that he couldn’t stand on one for too long. So, I really brought the energy and offered to take them to athletic training. Athletic training is a service offered to help with minor pains like a sprained ankle or pain in the knees. If the pain was unbearable I would have had to take them to EMS, but luckily they were very strong.

We waited in line for quite a while until we finally made it into the room. I took them over to get ice baths for their feet. My one dancer was still looking a little ill, but I kept my eye on it. They both loved their ice baths. Then I had the one with knee pain get his shin and knee wrapped and I had my other dancer get the arches of his foot wrapped. Afterwards they both felt so much better. Sadly, I had to leave, but they both seemed to be doing much better at that point.

Our shifts on Sunday were short so that the dancers though the time was going faster than it was, and so that we had a break. On Sunday I started to get very emotional. I am not sure whether it was due to how proud I was of my dancers, how proud I was of my committee, the love I felt, or the lack of sleep. But, as I entered my last shift for THON 2020 I watched as the senior took in their last minutes of something that has been their world for 4 years. I watched as my committee took it all in. On my last shift I gave my dancers a letter that describes how dancing at THON is like cancer because I wanted to remind them why they are fighting through the pain and the exhaustion. My last shift was a blur. I just kept telling my dancers how proud I was of them, and I stretch them out for the last time. I had to leave before I got too emotional.

THON was the thing that honestly made my freshmen year better. I was struggling more than I would like to admit, but THON was my outlet. I was sad that I had to say goodbye to seemingly the one thing that made me happy. Luckily, I still had final four.