Monday Memory: Prom!

In most high schools across the country, it's Prom season! Girls are busy dress shopping and guys are figuring out how best to ask out their favorite girl, or trying to get up the guts to ask any girl. When Dan and I were out at dinner last week, we saw a group of formally dressed Prom-goers and it reminded me so much of attending Prom my junior and senior years.

In my high school, the junior class was traditionally responsible for putting on the Prom. I was, of course, on the Prom committee and we chose the theme, An Evening in Paris. It should be noted that none of us had actually been to Paris, but the pictures in our minds looked lovely, so we went with it.

 

(Yes, this is the original Prom ticket from my junior year. Thanks sis Jen for finding this and scrapbooking it years later for me!)

My date that year was a guy from a rival high school who I'd been crushing on for quite some time. He was nice and polite and my parents liked his parents, and it turned out that he in no way, shape, or form was crushing on me. He was a good dancer though, and I wasn't bad on the dance floor myself, so we really did have a great time.

(Another side note: I made this dress for Prom as well as my 4-H sewing project. It still is one of my all-time favorite dresses.)

Prom my senior year was a different story. With two weeks before the big event, I had no date an there were no underground rumors of a shy guy still building up the courage to ask me. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be going, especially when my friends spoke about new dresses and fancy dinner plans. My girlfriends encouraged me to go by myself or with other single ladies. This was no big deal at my school, but most certainly not encouraged by my parents and not something I would be allowed to do had I wanted to.

Right after convincing myself a girl only needed to go to Prom once in her life, a guy friend who I'd known for years asked me. He actually had wanted to ask my little sister, but she wasn't old enough to go to Prom yet (my parent's rules, not the school's), so I guess he figured the older sister wasn't a bad second place.

Here's the thing though, for as sad and sorry as that story is, Prom senior year really was a lot of fun. It was less about does-he-or-doesn't-he-like-me and was more about spending time with my friends before we graduated and headed off in different directions. We were mere weeks away from graduation and even though we lived in a small town, we knew we'd rarely, if ever, all be in the same place again.

(Some of the senior ladies of Prom '97. That's me on the bottom left. I'm currently facebook friends with four of these gals, and met one for an extremely enjoyable 2-hour coffee about a year ago, but really have no idea what's going on with most of them. For that one night though, didn't we all look like a million bucks?)

Did you go to Prom? What memories stand out for you years later?