On April 15th, I was able to participate in my first and last prom. Seeing that the only proms I had experienced were through the T.V., either a show, a movie, or my mom's old VHS tapes of her many proms, I had high expectations for that night. I didn't know what those expectations were, but I knew the night in my head was big and special.

Saturday morning I went and got my nails done. They were, and still are, squared and beige and beautiful, and just a tad too long. After that, I hadn't eaten anything and was starving. You listen to people talk about how they aren't going to eat the day of prom or at least the time leading up to it, but I was hungry and have never really cared too much for fads so I made myself a bowl of ramen noodles and headed to my aunt’s house to get my hair done.

She is not a professional hair dresser, but she had some schooling and experience, and throughout most of my life she is the one who always does my hair, so she was the one I went to. She was very nervous about her updo capabilities, but I had, and have, faith in her and trusted her to beautify my hair. About two hours and a lot of laughing later my hair was done and I could not have been more pleased with it. It was the perfect mix of classy and relaxed.

With my hair checked off the list, it was then time for me to do my makeup. As I tried to put my contacts in with my new acrylic nails I heard my boyfriend, and prom date, Nick, walk through the door. After my makeup was done we took turns getting dressed. My dress was floor length and red. It had jewels outlining the sweetheart cut neckline and jewels around the start of my ribcage. It was beautiful and perfect, I felt beautiful. Nick got dressed in his black pants, vest, and jacket. The only problem we ran into was that he forgot his button down undershirt at home, as I was starting to sweat about us still having to stop by my mom’s for pictures and the traditional corsage and buttoner and worried about missing our reservation he wanted to stop by Walmart to get an undershirt even though he looked just fine with only a white t-shirt underneath it. It may not have been traditional, but it looked relaxed and like him.

We rushed to my mom’s and left much later than I wanted to. As my mom cried while we pulled out of the driveway, I wanted to cry in fear that we’d miss our reservation. We raced to Fort Wayne from Columbia City to the infamous Baker Street. Lucky, we made our reservation with a couple minutes to spare. The food was so so delicious and we were done in plenty of time. I could feel the excitement build inside me as the waitress asked if we’d like to see the desert menu. As I opened my mouth to say “Heck yes,” Nick’s mouth was faster and said “No, thank you.” My mouth immediately closed as my eyebrows furrowed and I looked at him as she went to go get our check.

“What the heck?” I asked him.

“I know that you want ice cream from Dairy Queen and even if we get a desert from here you’re still going to want ice cream from Dairy Queen.”

I couldn’t argue. He knows me too well. After we paid our bill, we swung by Dairy Queen and got some ice cream. Due to the sometimes very difficult task of driving through downtown Fort Wayne we decided to head there even though it was rather early. After much debate about the parking garage that we were supposed to park in to be able to use the prom parking voucher, we finally found it. Still too early for prom, we walked through the various beautiful destinations that downtown Fort Wayne has to offer. As the warm breeze ruffled my dress we began to make our way to the prom destination. As we walked through the doors and headed to the sign-in spot, my heart began to race. I didn’t know what it would look like. I didn’t know how the lighting would be, if there would be drinks, snacks, streamers, balloons, I just didn’t know. My heart began to race and I began to sweat. As we walked in, it was darkly lit with drink stations placed on both sides of the room, a tub of ice and water right next to it, a couple tables spread out with glasses on them. Tall patio tables set up in various places and a vast section of regular round tables, each with a centerpiece and a candle on it. There were door like structures that were different colors that were lit up as you walked in. The DJ at the far end of the room. A small area with hardwood floor, better known as the dance floor. We made our way to the right side of the room as Nick got water and I introduced him to the people I was friends with.

The room did not make me feel sparks, it was pretty, but it gave me no special feeling. The thing that did give me a special feeling was when Nick took my arm and pulled me to the dance floor. This was my magical prom moment. This was my magical moment because I knew from the time I asked Nick to go with me that even though he said yes he didn’t want to. I knew from the beginning that dances and social gatherings weren’t Nick’s thing. I knew that he hated to dance, but he loves and cares about me enough that he did it for me. But, he took my arm and was the first to pull me to the dance floor. That was where we stayed for the remainder of our time in that room. We danced all night. To minimize our time in traffic we left just a little bit earlier than the crowd. With sore feet, aching knees, droopy eyelids, and sweaty bodies we made our way back to the car. We drove through downtown, taking in the city lights and the silhouettes of the buildings against the moon. Not soon after we got back to my car that we had dropped off, we called it a night.

I had lots of fun at my senior prom, it was a great night. But there was nothing special about it. There was no after party, no longish trip afterwards. What made the night so great and so special was who I was with. Despite not wanting to dance and not liking the social scene, he danced with me the whole night and didn’t complain. The best part is that he did it because he loves me and cares about me. While I think and know that he did have a good time the whole reason he did it was to make me happy. I looked at him when we walked in and I saw how unhappy he looked to not think of it as a prom, think of it as an outing with just him and me. Then, when I was nervous to start dancing without friends around he looked me in the eyes and said “it’s just you and me.”

Prom may not have matched my unreasonable expectations, but it was one of the best nights of my life. Thank you.