My sophomore year, I attended my high school’s first mini-Dance Marathon as a photographer for the yearbook. I didn’t know what it was, except that it was a 6-hour dance that was supposed to help kids with cancer or something like that. However, as soon as I stepped through those doors, I fell in love.

The next year, I went on to dance as a part of the morale committee and it was amazing.

The year after that, I served on the executive board as the Marathon Events Chair.

Dance Marathon was my thing. I was in love with the cause, in love with the event, in love with the dancers, and, most importantly, in love with the kids. I brought that passion with me to college and participated as a dancer at the University of Kentucky’s DanceBlue 24-hour dance marathon and it was single-handedly the best 24 hours of my life. It was everything I had hoped for and more.

That being said, however, my background in participating in high school marathons did not prepare me for what I was to experience in the real thing. Therefore, I want to tell all the students out there the top 5 things I wish someone had told me before I participated in a 24-hour dance marathon.

1. It’s going to hurt

YOUR FEET. You will seriously contemplate the purpose of feet and whether or not you could survive with cutting them off. I think I spent a total of two hours rolling out my feet with a tennis ball just for some temporary relief. The rest of your body will hurt too, but luckily not until the next day.

2. Your perception of time will be messed up

Everything that you think happened “yesterday” will have happened two days ago. Not to mention, your sleep schedule will be super whack. I write this as I am wide awake at 5 a.m. two days after the marathon.

3. The line dance will keep you going

There will be some hours where you aren’t kept busy and the pain and tiredness really set in. However, you know you can always look forward to the line dance. Every hour on the hour.

4. You’re going to cry

I am not a person who happy-cries. Before the marathon, I had done this maybe once in my life. During DanceBlue, however, I happy-cried 8 TIMES. I cried over a semi-sad song, I cried over people in the stands cheering for me, I cried for the kids, I cried for the total reveal, and I even cried over my friend bringing me a Moe’s quesadilla (btw, if that’s not love, I don’t know what is).

5. It’s all worth it

I said it before, I’ll say it again. DanceBlue was single-handedly the best 24 hours of my life. Yes, it hurt a lot and there were some VERY rough hours, but doing something I never thought I could do, hearing the testimonials, and seeing the total reveal of 1,804,068.77 For The Kids made it all worth it.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, but it was worth it. Nothing could’ve prepared me for it and nothing can prepare you. It’s scary, but you just have to dive in head-first FTK. It truly is THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR!