In the past few days, it has become very clear to me that the dabbing situation has been blown out of proportion. What originally started as a celebratory dance craze has now become a loaded action with consequences attached. It’s turned into a modern, Footloose-esque situation except instead of dancing, it’s dabbing. I can acknowledge that the dance does have a certain amount of drug meaning behind it; however, most of the students using the dab are not the students planning on smoking weed in between classes.

While many will argue about the origins of the dance move and what exactly made it popular, it’s hard to deny what inspired the dab. The first definition shown when you search for “dabbing” on Urban Dictionary is “To press a piece of cannabis extract known as Butane Hash Oil against a heated surface of an oil rig pipe and inhale the smoke.” However, this is not the only definition Urban Dictionary has to offer. “To give a sharp nod to your raised forearm. Dancing with sharp nods repeated. Dab on those fools. To acknowledge, agree upon stunt on,” is just one of many other dance-based definitions under the same search term.

If anything, the dab is a prime example of how the meaning of slang, dance moves, and sayings can change over time just like language. Were you ever taught “Eenie, meeny, miney, mo. Catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo,” as a kid? Well this phrase originally started as “Eenie, meeny, miney, mo. Catch a n—– by the toe.” And as much as I hate to pull this card, Snapchat was originally designed to send nudes without the same drawbacks that texting had. It seems to me that in a few years, maybe even a few months, the dab will be just another one of these changing references in teen/pop culture.

The other aspect of this whole debacle that really irks me is what they (in this case, generally teachers) are trying to take away: Freedom. According to uscourts.gov, freedom of a speech does not include the right “Of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event (Morse v. Frederick).” And while I’m by no means an expert on this subject, I don’t believe that the dab falls under this category with the intentions of the students. While I understand why certain restrictions need to be in place in school, I hate to see the school restrict us so heavily that we feel that we can no longer speak freely. Per contra, we shouldn’t be allowed to do, or say, whatever we want, because I think we all know that would end with Netflix and Nap sessions. Teachers should have to ability to limit the dabs, or other obnoxious behaviors in their classroom, but I think they should use this authority more sparingly than they currently are. The unfortunate problem in this situation is that there is no cut and dry way to punish dabbing without cutting it complete, which would lead to more backlash than we’ve already seen.

That being said, on the student’s part, I do think we could choose more appropriate times to use dabbing. For example, nobody really wants to sit in class and watch you dab to every song a teacher plays or dab so much that it becomes hard to focus in class. I know I personally find it distracting when you’re trying to ask a teacher a question and every ten seconds people are dabbing. Just like there are times to laugh and times to cry, there are times to dab and there are times to refrain from dabbing.

And to all the teachers out there, don’t you remember what it was like to be our age? To only worry about how well you could do the latest dance or what you got on a test or what your friends were doing this weekend? This is the youngest any of us will ever be again, and I personally intend on living every moment I have in this wild and precious life to the fullest. Whether that be dabbing at homecoming, cheering on the football team so ferociously that I can’t speak the next morning, or leaving everything I have on the stage, I don’t want to look back and remember being told I couldn’t do something, I want to remember being told what I did was something worth doing.

And in regards to how much dabbing is too much dabbing, please, use caution. I urge you to exercise your authority, but be aware of how often you choose to exercise it.  As ol’ Uncle Ben once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Will dabbing continue? Probably. Are we going to get sick of it eventually? Most likely. Until then, are we going to continue dabbing? Yea. That’s all folks. So just remember to dab responsibly, but when in doubt, dab out.