My senior year of high school, the faculty asked me to host our homecoming pep rally, the first time they’d asked a student to host. Clearly, I was on my way to being a star.

Wanting to do something special, something that people would really remember, I convinced four of the dudes I played football with to learn the dance to “Bye Bye Bye” and dress up as Nsync for an opening number. I carefully selected the dudes based on who looked the most like guys from Nsync.

• Tom had a beard, so he was Joey. We colored his hair red, since that’s what Fatone was doing at the time.
• Nathan was Lance because he had blond hair.
• Edgar was Chris, because he was a big club guy and wanted to be in the dance and none of the members of Nsync were Mexican. Tough break.
• Brad was JC because he had dark hair and liked wearing cutoff sleeve t-shirts.
• I was Justin because I had highlighted curly hair. I wore jeans, a denim jacket, a Batman shirt and black Nikes. Nailed it.

So we learned the dance, spending probably an hour and a half after our walkthrough practice on Thursday with me teaching these guys choreography in the hallway.

That night, we walked out silently, the music started and me and four dudes danced to “Bye Bye Bye” in front of the entire school, friends and family while dressed as Nsync. The crowd went nuts, making it totally worth the time I spent rewinding and rewinding their Saturday Night Live performance on my VCR with my mom, trying to understand the moves.

I also finished third in the pie-eating contest during that pep rally. It was a good night.