The beginner's competition marked the end of my status as a newcomer. For
myself and many other rookies, its a transition point where we make the
decision of whether we want really want to commit ourselves to learning
ballroom dancing for a whole year. The pattern of rookie attrition that year
was pretty typical of most collegiate ballroom teams: rookies would gradually
drop our through the course of the first semester and by the end of the first
semester roughly half of them would remain. A
