It was such an awful time for me. Senior prom, senior week. I had some friends/acquaintances who all went. I couldn't get a date. No one ever asked me to go before senior year, either. I didn't have a date to the eighth grade party or the sixth grade dance. And I was a cute girl. I had a Bat Mitzvah. I worked hard to prepare for it, and there were kids I knew who had far fancier parties than I had. Mine was a tasteful luncheon. Some kids had black-tie bashes and got ridiculously expensive gifts. One girl came to my party and didn't bring a gift at all. So wrong. I think my favorite gift from that occasion was the drugstore eyeshadow palette a friend of mine gave me. I got some jewelry but that only made me look "expensive" at school, and my school wasn't all upper-middle class.
I went with my mother to my college physical when everyone else was busy enjoying the senior trip. The doctor told me I was ten pounds overweight, too! That made it an even worse week. I had an eating disorder, but I thought I looked ok.
The night of the prom, my father said, "just go have an ice cream sundae and get it over with." I know my parents felt terrible for me. But, life goes on. I went to two college semi-formals, and really, it's just a night out. Dinner and dancing. Don't let the pictures and glamorous poses fool you. Some teens get raped on prom night. That's not cool. It's a hyped-up thing, and unfortunately I read one too many issues of Seventeen magazine beginning in junior high school. So when it was my turn, and I couldn't get dressed up, I was sad.