Prom season is finally winding down. Even as a senior in college, this season of the year always gets to me. I went through my entire high school experience without every getting asked to a homecoming dance, winter formal, or a prom. In fact, I never even went to a high school dance until I was a senior in high school, and even then, I only went because I felt like I had to. What's high school without prom, the supposed best night of your life?
I watched countless people get "prom-posed" to on campus and on social media, I saw girls going to L.A. and dropping 500-plus dollars on designer gowns, and I heard about all the party buses people were renting out for the evening. My best friend and I made a pact to go with each other, we spent less than a hundred dollars on our dresses at David's Bridal, and our moms drove us and some other friends to the venue. Prom was far from the best night of my life. We had fun, but I knew there were better days to come.
I don't resent my prom experience. I resent how much pressure is put on today's youth to make prom the biggest night of our lives. What about the girls who don't have a lot of money to buy a dress that no one else will have? What about the boys whose parents don't have a lot of money to drop on asking one simple question? What about the people who don't conform to society's gender norms? When did such a simple night become the make-or-break of the high school experience? So much is put on just this one night; if you don't do it "right," then you're likely going to feel incompetent and as if you didn't really do high school like you were supposed to. I know I definitely did.
So if you never got asked to a dance, if you never rode a party bus equipped with a stripped pole with thirty other people, if you never had a magical prom night like they show in the movies, I'm here to tell you that it gets better. Your worth is not measured by how many crystals are on your dress or how much you dropped on a prom-posal.
For the longest time, I felt incompetent because no one thought to ask me to prom. I felt incompetent because I only went to prom once. I felt incompetent because my prom night wasn't entirely "magical" like people tell you it should be. But I was far from incompetent. I was on the executive boards of two organizations on campus, I performed in multiple stage productions per year, and I managed to graduate with honors with distinction and a presidential scholarship to my dream school. I may not have been the prom queen, but I turned out alright.
High school is only four years of your life. Trust me, it gets so much better.
