Okay yes I'm combining two days into one but lemmie explain (I'm not trying to cheat I swear!)
This weekend was one I will never forget. I won't be able to explain this just right to anybody, but I will do my absolute best.
Saturday and Sunday, I made memories I'll tell my kids about. I never thought I could do something like this - push my body in ways I thought were impossible, and all while literally saving someone's life.
PDM 2015... you were real good to me.
I've always wanted to be a part of something so big and makes such a huge impact on someone's (or many people's) life. And this weekend, I did just that. I literally danced for 24 hours straight!
These are my sorority sisters that also participated in the 24-hour all day, all night event. With our game faces on, we were ready for a challenge. Our goal? Raise $100k for the Children's Miracle Network. Bring it on!
So my roommate Mavis and our friend Lauren started out Saturday morning on the snowy/slippery/mountainous climb to upper campus and got to the event around 10 or 11am. Needless to say, everyone there was already up and ready to go at like 8 or 9, so the next 24 hours seemed extremely far away. Luckily I got an amazing sleep Friday night after painting my nails to match our purple team shirts, so I was more excited than nervous. But trust me, the nerves did come across my mind once or twice.
And there we were- The Pitt Dance Marathon! Walking onto the plushy, bouncy turf made me wonder if my feet were actually going to be okay throughout the event. I was thoroughly mistaken... to say the least!
First order of business was to meet the child our purple team was supporting closely. Her name was Gracie, and she had two cochlear implants.
My heart melted. Not only was Gracie such a joy to be around and learn about, but she exerted such a positive energy. I was especially excited to meet her, because I've learned so much about cochlear implants because of my major. I knew how they worked, what the procedure was to get them working with her brain, and why she qualified in needing them in the first place. When her mom told us how hard she fought to have her child get the care she wanted for her, it brought tears to my eyes. Needless to say, her mother was clearly Gracie's number one fan.
12:00 noon was quickly approaching, meaning the time we had to relax on our butts was shrinking faster and faster, with my heart pounding in sync with the ticking time.
Time to start dancing!!! I raced onto the dance floor with my friends and we began to tear it up!!!
Aren't we adorable?
On the backs of our shirts we wrote "I dance for Gracie" to honor our new little friend.
So here's where all the hourly activities started. To break the time up, the leaders of PDM had all the dancers (the ones staying the whole 24 hours) and moralers (people who stayed for 8 and helped cheer on dancers) learn this line dance to be performed every hour on the hour. It was kinda cute, until they had us singing about "some tragic things." I thought this dance was supposed to be positive? But, good try I guess? I liked the part most at the end to the tune of "Uptown Funk." Still, the point was to get us motivated to raise that big 100k.
Of course, we had to take a step inside the gigantic bounce house set up. Lauren, Katie, Mavis, my big, gl, and my little and me ran inside to play duck duck goose with two of the children!
While we still had the energy, we played games with the kids and that made time fly by, even just for a little while. It's so cute seeing how the kids can just run on seemingly endless energy and still be laughing the whole time.
Fast-forward to some new DJs entertaining us for their assigned hour. One was completely on-point with his mixes and really got us pumped up! (though our feet were starting to feel it) My mind though was starting to trick me into thinking those lasers were some kind of object being thrown directly at my face. No sleep + constant dancing + house music will do that to ya.
And, as the night went on, our hourly line dance became second nature, and pretty much shocked any newcomers seeing it for the first time.
Techno hour was the most crowded by far. Most people came for the rave-like nature of the scene, and honestly I had a lot of fun during that span of time. This is also the time when we all go a big new surge of energy to keep us going, so it was definitely a great time dancing with a mix of my friends in Her Campus, and my sorority sisters!
More activities! As the wee hours of the night approached, our little group of Her Campus Cloggers (yes, bloggers who dance!) stayed strong. There was one point where we had to pile on as many TSwift tees as we possibly can.
By this hour (I wanna say like 2am?) we started getting a little loopy. I think this is when our words turned into broken English, but with just as much spirit. Also, our legs were getting kinda annoyed with us.
Whoops. Spoke too soon.
By 5am, I was not me. This hour hit me, smack dab in the face.
I literally felt like I couldn't even remember how to curl up and rest. There was just no energy left in me that I didn't even know what normal felt like anymore. Staying on your feet that long really gets to ya, and I had no idea what it would feel like.
It hurts. And it is HARD.
It basically felt like somebody took each individual muscle and threw an anvil on top of it, then set fire to it and burned it to a crisp. No body part felt this way ever before.
Everyone left out that little bit of it, but I guess it's because looking back at it now, that was only a small portion of the entire night.
As the morning went on, a few of us in our group went home. Me and Mavis knew this was our last chance to finish strong, so we stuck with it. Thankfully, we now had Jess from HC also, and a few more friends to come visit. My body was pretty much in horror at this point. My mind... I don't even know what it was doing to be honest.
The awesome thing is seeing how much people truly care for you during times like these. I cannot even describe the amount of love I received from friends and sisters offering to bring us coffee, snacks, anything. I don't know how I would have made it without you all believing in us, and how much you wanted us to finish this.
Alyssa woke up early to come see us when we absolutely needed her most - about 30 minutes before the big ending. Everyone came around here too, my big, little, gl, my iris, and so many more sisters. It was amazing how much they amped us up again and were now minutes away from being finishers.
Ten minutes left. We can do this!
Here's where things got really cool.
Our graduated sorority sister Merel got up and gave an inspiring speech about how Children's Hospitals saved her life. She said how it became a second home to her as she was growing up, and now she works there. She truly is an amazing human.
Now for the big reveal....drum roll please...
WE HIT OUR GOAL!!!
PDM raised over $153,000 for Children's Miracle Network! That is so incredible. I literally cried when that number was shown and we sang "Sweet Caroline" afterwards as a group. My teams and I helped do that. We helped someone live our their dream, like Merel did and Gracie will.
It was an experience, to say the very least. I know I absolutely never could have done it though had it not been for this girl right here. We stuck through the entire 24 hours as seniors, and will always be able to tell this story. I'm so incredibly proud of us, of Her Campus, and of Delta Phi Epsilon. Without these people in my life, I would not have the fulfillment that I do today.
Much love to PDM and to Children's Hospitals everywhere.
Dance on babes,
XO
Amanda
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