3 . For the first time in two years, our school held a Halloween homecoming dance. This year’s homecoming was around a recent soccer victory against the neighboring school. Everyone was in a particularly festive mood.

At the same time, for a safer gathering during the COVID-19, we were required to hold the dance outdoors if we wanted to go mask-free. This was unfortunate because temperatures in Boston were expected to be no higher than 10℃ that night. Later, I realized that the cold was the least of my worries.

We sent apology letters out to the neighbors surrounding the school and told them to expect loud music on Oct 29. Then on that Friday night, members of the Student Union gathered together to decorate the tent provided by the school as a protection from the cold.

After two hours of blowing balloons, putting fake spider webs on trees and setting up the food table, people started showing up in their costumes. I ran away to the bathroom to dress up. Having seen all the news about Asian hate in the US, I decided that it was important to present Asian spirit — thus I proudly dressed myself up in a traditional Chinese qipao.

When I got outside again, the dance was in full swing. There was a DJ spinning songs, and the lights were flashing away, though no one was on the dance floor yet. However, things took a sharp turn when a familiar song — Gangnam Style by South Korean singer Psy — came on, and the dance floor was never empty again until the end of the evening. With every beat drop, the crowd jumped crazily to the beat, and I followed along. My feet hurt so much at the end of the evening, but I’ll admit that it was worth all of the excitement I experienced.