Stand Up, Walk Away!

Sometimes things happen to you when you hear a certain song.  You are transported back in time and everything seems so real.  In my new calling as stake primary music specialist I need to teach a song and dance to the 10 and 11 year old girls in our stake.  I thought of the Janice Kapp Perry song "Stand Up, Walk Away" written when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  I have a wonderful history with this song and while walking today I decided I'd better brush up on the moves before I taught them to the girls.  When I played it in my ear things (I know, Aleigh, I have no idea what they are called) I started crying and laughing and dancing down the street remembering when I first taught this song and dance.  It was 18 years ago at my first stake girl's camp where I was the camp director.  I was already petrified of being in charge of over a hundred girls for 4 days and I wanted them to like camp and like me and I was so scared.  In trying to come up with fun things for them to do I thought about what I love to do most, which is dance, and wondered if I would have the guts to get up in front of teenagers who might think this is the dumbest idea ever and teach them this song.  I remember it started out a little slow.  I got up on the table in the lunch room and showed them the dance and played the song.  I was so nervous.  A couple of the more adventurous ones started joining in by the third time the chorus played and they had figured out some of the moves.  We practiced every meal after that and by the next day girls were jumping up on the table with me and dancing their hearts out.  By the time we performed it for our bishops on the last night I was euphoric!  They loved it and I loved them! That camp was one of the crowning glories of my life.  I have never had something I was so afraid of doing turn out so well.  Now my camp girls are wives and moms and some even have girls going to camp this year (which I am in charge of, again.).  One of my girls is even the ward camp director in my ward and taught the girls of our ward this same dance last year at ward camp.  I'm too scared to resurrect it for this camp so I will content myself in teaching the younger girls in a couple of weeks.  I was just amazed at the very real memories and feelings that washed over me when I heard this song this morning.  18 years ago I was pregnant with my only girl, I had my best friend in the world up at camp with me and life was amazingly good (especially on the last day when I realized that our camp had been a resounding success:) Whew!) My life is still amazingly good but it was wonderful to walk down memory lane.