Teenager Fortnite emotes me, I dap him up

I was at the mall with a coffee in hand, and there were a group of teenagers. They weren’t in my way, but a little bit off to the side. They were whispering to each other, then all their eyes turned to me.

“Excuse me,” one of them said.

I stop mid-sip to say, “Yeah?”

“Can you dap me up?”

His hand extends out to me. They’re all looking at me as I extend mine to him. Then, he pulls his hand back (a la down-low-too-slow) and starts doing some TikTok dance. His friends start laughing while my hand waits for the promised dap-up.

He stops dancing. He wasn’t gonna dap me up.

“Haha, is there a hidden camera somewhere or something,” I said.

Trying to contain his grin, he points at his friend, as if to expose her. She says, “What?!” We all laugh.

“Hey, dap me up for real this time,” I said.

I finally get my long awaited dap-up, and it was a good one too, and I leave after wishing them a good day.

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As a teenager, I was so afraid to be seen and perceived. I didn’t want to be a bother. In social situations, I would try to get out of the way as much as possible. And if I couldn’t, then I would apologize profusely before anything had even happened.

After this interaction, I was reminded of a tweet I saw a few days before (actual source):

Youth is wasted on the young.

I spent a lot of my teenage years making myself as small as possible, when I really should have been enjoying myself. People don’t have the same expectations of you when you’re 16 vs. 26.

These kids were probably daring each other to embarrass themselves in front of strangers. And they were having the time of their life.

I’d like to be more like them and embarrass myself now, before expectations change again and I turn 36. ✻