Dear Piper,

Is the third time the charm?

–Jason

Dear Jason,

Yes, it is. But what some people don’t seem to understand is that the charm isn’t always THE charm. For example, in high school I very badly wanted to be on the drill team. The drill team girls got to dance at football games during half-time in white go-go boots and green and white polyester minidresses adorned with sequins bow ties. Sometimes they danced with pom-poms, sometimes flags and sometimes they just used gloves that were green on one side and white on the other, so when they turned their hands back and forth it was quite the visual treat for the audience. It was all, in my mind, very fancy…very hot…and very much the path to making myself popular. The first year I tried out I didn’t make it. The second year I tried out I didn’t make it. Oh, but the third time was a charm. I made the team! And now, as I look back on pictures of myself in that get-up, with all that make up on, holding those silly props with a ridiculous grin on my face I realize I was duped. There was nothing charming about being one of 28 girls who had to line up by height, travel everywhere on a bus together and wear green eyeshadow. I think this is where my fear of a roomful of women stems from. I do, however, often wish I still had those white go-go boots. They were the bomb.

–Piper