So picture it, 2004 (said in my best Sophia Petrillo voice. Love me some Golden Girls). 18 year old me getting my hair done to get ready for prom. I originally was not going to go. To the point that I didn’t buy my prom ticket until the very last day they were available.
Why didn’t I want to go you ask? Truthfully, I wasn’t the most popular person in high school. High school was a time in my life when I felt the most awkward and unsure of myself. I had friends but many were just surface friendships, I had no date and I didn’t really have the cash to do anything extravagant. Plus, I didn’t want to put my parents out so I just planned not to go.
What I didn’t know was how important it was to my mom that I did go. She grew up in a time where she had to integrate her school (here in good ole nyc in the 1970s) and needed police escort. To say her high school experience was not ideal, especially as an immigrant to this country, is an understatement. She literally hated it. She still to this day has nothing good to say of the experience. So she didn’t go to her prom. Her desire for her girls (my sister and I) was not to have the same experience she did and to experience things that she couldn’t.
Why didn’t I want to go you ask? Truthfully, I wasn’t the most popular person in high school. High school was a time in my life when I felt the most awkward and unsure of myself. I had friends but many were just surface friendships, I had no date and I didn’t really have the cash to do anything extravagant. Plus, I didn’t want to put my parents out so I just planned not to go.
What I didn’t know was how important it was to my mom that I did go. She grew up in a time where she had to integrate her school (here in good ole nyc in the 1970s) and needed police escort. To say her high school experience was not ideal, especially as an immigrant to this country, is an understatement. She literally hated it. She still to this day has nothing good to say of the experience. So she didn’t go to her prom. Her desire for her girls (my sister and I) was not to have the same experience she did and to experience things that she couldn’t.
After she told me that how could I not go?! So we picked out a dress from the Chadwicks Catalog. Shoutout to Chadwicks! I’ll never forget it because it was pink, my least favorite color, but it was the only dress we both really liked. Lol. It was a column dress with spaghetti straps and matching pink satin shoes. At that time flipped up ends were really popular and I wore a pink flower in my hair. The pick below are the closet representations I could find of what I looked like. This was almost 15 years ago, style has changed tremendously and it was before the age of social media.
I did end up getting a date. My dad drove us in the family minivan lol (so crazy when I think about it), and my picture ended up in the lobby of my school after prom.
The best part of all this was creating a memory with my mom. Sometimes things and events like prom are more than that night. It’s about creating memories. I had a great time with my friends that night but I always hold dear the time I spent with my mom picking out dresses and getting ready
Happy Shopping!
Your Friend,
The Fabulous Shoe Maven
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