Kim Young Woo / My Experience / Narrative Composition Tuesday 1, 2

Young Woo Alex Kim

201203937

Narrative Composition Tues1,2

When My Mind Went Blank

Anyone whoever has attended college, especially those in Western countries, can agree that the first year is filled with surprises and experiences that one would never be able to forget. After living our whole lives as a student at home, monitored and supervised by our parents, the first year of college is a transition phase for many teenagers. They are shipped off with only their belongings and whatever knowledge he or she has obtained from their peers about the craziness of college life to survive all by themselves.

The first week of university at U.C. Riverside was very chaotic. Frat members and various clubs were everywhere trying to recruit the freshmen to rush or join their organizations by inviting them to a week full of unlimited alcohol and partying. During this week, I met countless number of people from all over California, and this is where I would be introduced to the club that I would be heavily involved in, KASA, Korean American Student Association. My prior knowledge before entering this club was their notoriety of being a club filled with partying and drinking, hence their nickname Korean Alcoholic Smoking Association. I mean, Koreans aren't known to be heavy drinkers and smokers for no reason.

Although Riverside amongst all the other UC's was known to be a party school, my first impressions of the Riverside KASA members were very welcoming and pleasant. After becoming a member at the first general meeting of the semester, they made an announcement of an annual event that the club took part in with all the other KASAs in the other UC's and Cal State Universities all over California. This event was the freshmen dance off, where a dance team of freshmen from all over California universities would compete in a dance off. Right after announcing how big this event was, the staff members showed the newcomers the dance off video of Riverside KASA from the previous years on the big screen. I felt a sudden rush of pride and felt desire to take part so that I could represent my school.

The actual competition was only a month and half away from the first general meeting. I remember for the next month, I spent all night practicing every single day, some practices going through the next morning and finishing it off with breakfast together. Having to endure the cold desert nights of Riverside and having to memorize numerous difficult choreography pieces in less than a month, the practices weren't easy. Moreover, the majority of us never had any prior dancing experiences and the group that started out with more than 50 freshmen, ended up being left with the twenty something of us.

Even until the day before D-day, we weren't ready. Although I don't think this was a good idea, we spent the whole night before the actual day of the performance practicing. Thus, none of us were able to go back to our dormitory rooms until we had to change into our outfits and prep ourselves to go on stage.

With no sleep, I remember I was only able to stay awake because of the jitters and excitement of finally being able to perform on stage. Our school was the third from last to perform and we weren't allowed to watch any other schools to perform until we finished our performances. I remember waiting with all the other schools in the back stage and seeing how energetic they all were with their matching outfits. The wait in the backstage left me feeling more nervous.

When I was actually on stage, I remember looking at all the blank face expressions of the audience since other schools didn't express any kind of support to the other schools. This didn't help my already pounding heart and all of a sudden, my head went blank. I felt stuck and my body froze. I couldn't remember anything I did over the past month and I thought I was going to have a panic attack. Suddenly, the music began to play and I remember as if some kind of energy took over my body. Without actually being aware of what I was doing, my body moved on its own to the music. Muscle memory had saved my life and the countless hours I had put into mastering all the dance pieces had worked. In the end, I cannot ever forget that feeling of sheer terror when my mind saw white. Hard work paid off, and we ended up 3rd place out of twenty schools.

( I apologize to my fellow classmates for making my writing longer than I wanted it to be)