As a drill team girl, you learn a lot: how to point your toes, how do high kicks for five minutes straight, and how to do any combination your director decides to throw at you with ease and grace. But along with the technique, drill team taught many valuable lessons that you probably still use to this day.
First, and arguably the most important one is how to fix any fashion disaster using a safety pin, hairspray, and in some extreme cases, pencil eraser. Drill team taught you to carry a safety pin (or 20) with you at all times, so last minute clothing catastrophes are no problem for you. Did you lose an earring back? Just pop the eraser off of a pencil and stick it on to keep the earring in place. Find a hole in your shirt just minutes before a huge interview? A button pops off right before a date? No sweat for you; the constant pinning of dance costumes has prepared you for these otherwise stressful moments.
Second is how to put on a game face when necessary. Being a part of a dance team, you were required to do my different dances and show various emotions for the performance. From plastering that cheesy smile on your face (and keeping it there for an ungodly amount of time) for pregame and the halftime show, to basically (and sometimes actually) bursting into tears for the lyrical number that the judges dubbed as “heart-wrenching,” you know how to put your own feelings and emotions aside in order to conquer the task at hand, and you can thank the director that made you practice facial expressions in the mirror during practice for that.
Third, you can get along with virtually anyone for at least three minutes. If you were on a dance team, you were bound to meet people who you just didn’t mesh with. Whether that girl said some nasty things behind your back or you just didn’t get along, for three minutes you had to put your differences aside for the performance. If you ever have to work with someone you don’t like, it’s no big deal for you because you’ve had to do this too many times to count, often while putting your life in their hands for the huge stunt that wowed the audience.
Fourth, you are a pro at going without sleep. With the late practices and then waking up at 4 a.m. the next day to get ready for a full day of dance competitions, you have trained for all the nights you stayed up studying (or Netflixing) when you have a midterm the next day, because hey, if you can dance all day on three hours of sleep, you can definitely handle that test.
Fifth and finally, drill team taught you that with red lipstick on, you are unstoppable. Every drill team girl knows that the last step of getting ready before hitting the stage is to apply red lipstick. Even if you felt like a clown, you knew that once you put it on you ready to crush that performance and for anything else that came your way and that statement still holds true today.
