Hey guys,
this will be quite a different post. I planned on challenging myself only after reaching my goal of being fully recovered back to health. But if you followed me through my journey, you might have realised I’m an impatient person.
And when I learned something: There’s no better time than the present.
Life is full of opportunities and I decided to take a chance and do something my body sure as hell couldn’t have been ready for. At least I thought so…
Challenge background
A really good friend visited me for a weekend. Like I said, if you trust in yourself, in good karma and in universal bonds, life will give you what you need.
Obviously I needed to reconnect with my friend, a friend I haven’t seen for over 4 years.
Well, you might think, this isn’t a long time and if we stayed in touch, there’s nothing special about it. But, we didn’t. At least not like we used to. And that’s totally ok, because we have our separate lives and trust into our friendship overcoming even the greatest obstacles.
If anything serious would happen I know I could count on her to listen to me and vice versa.
But let’s get to the point. After catching up, I suggested to go clubbing.
I haven’t been to a club for almost 2 years and honestly I just realised, the reason wasn’t that I was sick, but that I stopped enjoying going way long before.
Clubbing felt like going to the gym, going in to see and be seen.
Pregaming, dressing after a certain dress code, acting super happy and chill at the same time, dancing aesthetically, but not too inviting. Getting close to sweaty people, turning down guys asking you to dance, getting harassed by drunks. Being hungover and exhausted the next morning.
Yeah, I self-declared myself a grandma. So, why would I want to go clubbing again?
Easy, because I want to convince myself, this stigma isn’t real. I used to love clubbing just for the sake of going dancing with my girls (and guys :D), sober or not. It didn’t matter. It was about, us spending a fun night together and nothing more or less.
Party Night
So, my friend was up for it. We did have a little bonus to my challenge. As it was ladies’ night (probs to a guy friend real quick: this is kind of discriminating and clubs should introduce guys’ nights as well!), we didn’t have to pay admission when entering before midnight.
The perks of this party: free entrance, getting make up and hair done by professionals, a free waffle, free welcome shots and complimentary soft drinks and prosecco.
This actually gave me an idea to take this clubbing idea a little further. What would happen, if we didn’t care about the dress code and just go there in our ‘normal’ clothes, without make up and without pregaming.
Ok, drinking was of course never intended, because of my stomach issues, but this wasn’t the first time I went clubbing sober on purpose, so I am able to compare my experience to a prior one.
My friend and I barely made it until midnight and the whole way in, we just thought: There’s no way the bouncers will let us in 😀
I expected dressed up, but I didn’t expect almost all women in high heels with sparkly cocktail dresses, jumpsuits or skirts, with perfect make up, smelling like just walking out of a perfume shop.
I wore jeans, sneakers and a flannel shirt 😀 So, yeah, slightly stood out.
The bouncer quickly gave us an undermining look like: How the hell are you two dressed, but then let us through. RESULT!
Ok, so the first problem was solved and the worst yet to come. Just joking!
We didn’t get our hair and make up done and immediately got in line for our free waffle. Because, hello?! Free food! (Can I just mention, I’m so proud of myself to officially being able to say, I’m sure of being free of any kind of disordered eating habits 🙂 )
Having finished eating our waffles and bringing our jackets to the garderobe, we went in. By that time, the people actually paying admission were already mostly inside, so the dancing floor was full.
After a few minutes of terrible chart music, the dj finally started to play something good to dance to and off we went.
So, there I was, surrounded by more or less drunk people, either dancing a two-step, a weird new dance style I couldn’t even describe or actually dancing quite well. And what can I say, I enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it! I reconnected with a part of myself I missed so much, a carefree dancer who felt comfortable with every move she made, ignoring all her surroundings and just let her body follow the direction the music made her to go.
I was able to let go of all my pain, of all fears, of all doubts and i was happy!
We stayed almost until 4 and were home by 5 in the morning. And damn, was I tired the next day, but that night, I could have stayed until the club had to close.
So yeah, I would do that again sometime. Preferably when I’m fully healthy. But if an opportunity presents itself before that, I’d totally go nonetheless.
What you should take away from my clubbing challenge
Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t go clubbing, because you dress differently, can’t dance or apparently don’t seem to fit, because of some bullshit reason.
Try to go, just once, exactly how you dress on a daily basis, in clothes YOU are comfortable with and without make up. Just your natural self and see what happens.
If the bouncer rejects you, tell him or her, if they want fun, energetic, confident people in their club who actually enjoy the music, ambience and leaving having had a good time. Then point to yourself and say you would be the life of the party 😀
No, seriously now, the only acceptable reasons people shouldn’t be let in into clubs are: there’s no capacity left, the person’s a harm to themselves or others, the person’s underage or if there are any other rules broken. But definitely not because of someone’s look.
If clubbing isn’t your thing at all, challenge yourself with something else. But let it be a social experience. Maybe one with your friends. A new sport you haven’t tried, a new restaurant, event, holiday or day trip destination. Just something social outside of your comfort zone.
Important
If you decide on challenging yourself it would be so awesome of you to leave a comment, describing shortly (or however long you want), what it is you’re challenging yourself with!
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