Last Friday night at the Howdy Hop, I had quite the stellar time. Loud music, my best friends, grinding …

Oh wait. Scratch that last one.

Here, I'll start at the beginning …

I arrive at senior Lizzy Warner's house at around 7:45, straight from a short jaunt of babysitting after school. I've been up since 5, and school and the kids were both pretty tiring. I'm just ready to LET LOOSE at the end of an overwhelming first few days.

And, honestly, I think that the kids who went to the dance should get props for spending their Friday night there, supervised, rather than off gallivanting around doing who knows what. And I’m not saying that anyone would have been doing anything at all illicit, but it just seems better that it was a school event, right?

After getting ready at Lizzy’s house, we head over to the dance at around 9:30. Entering the first-floor hallway, we immediately kick off our shoes and head for the dance floor. YES! I love dancing, and I love singing along to the songs, and our school dances have been one of my favorite things about Uni ever since entering as a subfreshman.

We begin to get our grooves on, if you will, and are dancing away, when suddenly …

Someone breaks us up and tells us how much space she needs to see between our bodies.

… Seriously?

I'm a high school senior, and I'm almost 18. I apologize for grinding with one of my best friends? But I don't really see the problem here. I understand that there are subbies there, and that maybe they're 12 and 13 and shouldn't be exposed to that, but … then they should know from that dance on that that's what they should expect, and if they're not mature enough to handle it, it's not a mandatory event. These dances are for the whole school, which means that they should be FUN for the whole school.

I remember my VERY first Uni dance, which I suppose was the Howdy Hop my subbie year (I love our dances and have been to every single one I could attend), all the upperclassmen were grinding and dancing and having an awesome time. I remember thinking that it was SO COOL that the school was OK with having a dance from 8 to 11 (which, to my 13-year-old brain, was pretty late) and that we could dance however we wanted to. We could go buy sodas downstairs, bring friends, and although there were chaperones, they were letting us have fun!

Flash forward to my senior year, where I'm getting separated from my friend and scolded. Really? I've been waiting to be a senior for FOUR YEARS, and now it's here and … well, not quite what I was expecting.

Now, I admit, they're not being as hard as they would at some schools: I danced to a slow song with a guy friend, and they didn't set any space limits. And at prom last year, the rules were also relaxed, I assume because they realized that no one would come to prom if they couldn't dance with each other.

But still, with teachers standing up on tables to see into the crowd, I felt a little … violated. I mean, I’m not really inclined to go to these dances and (in the future) pay money to feel awkward about expressing myself. And yes, expressing myself involves grinding. Sorry, that's how it goes.

Because that's what it IS these days — dancing and grinding are often interchangeable. Not always, I'm the first to admit, because I adore jumping around and just plain ol' dancing as well. But times are changin', kid. Gotta move on.

And I, personally, don't equate grinding with dating or being interested in each other or ANYTHING along those lines. I think of it more as … flirting, I suppose. And I flirt with guy friends all the time. And if I'm just grinding with a close girlfriend, then it's just something that we do because we're close, like sharing mascara or snuggling on the couch during a movie. It's just a girl thing.

Basically, my point is that I think that the grinding policies are sort of absurd. One of the wonderful things about Uni that seems to be changing lately is all of the freedom. I want to be trusted to be respectful toward adults and younger students while STILL being able to have fun and let loose, since that's what these dances are supposed to be FOR. And we all just want to have fun.

All I ask for is a little trust to not get carried away on the dance floor, and in return I'll respect you more, for acknowledging that we, not as students or children, but as teenagers, are using high school as a chance to figure out how to grow up.