It’s definitely hard to miss all the people where I live pulling out of driveways in dresses and people taking pictures across all the public areas, it really lets you know it’s prom time.
What’s your experience with prom (or multiple proms if you went to others too)? How did everyone look? How was it celebrated? Was it good?
Fuck prom. I lost it at prom my junior year because I was managing the logistics and social momentum for our entire group despite way too much petty high school drama, childish behavior, and real life drama (car breaking down). After basically pulling a damn miracle to make it happen we got there and the group was still bitching/snotty so I snapped, yelled loudly in front of teachers, and walked the fuck out. My date, who I had recently started semi-dating/hooking up with, went home with another dude. In hindsight I don’t blame her but we were supposed to be friends first and I thought she would be there emotionally for me instead of piling it on.
The next year I went but also had a shit ton of stress because I was getting everyone else ready and then no one would help me/gave a shit. My other friend started pouting at like noon that day because a different friend hadn’t finished sewing her prom dress as promised. So I literally (this was before YouTube) took her fabric and figured out to make a skirt and hand sewed it on the spot to make her happy (it looked great btw) but then I ended up looking like crap with terrible hair.
I wasn’t mature enough to not let everyone put their bullshit on me.
Overall it was stressful and lackluster. Other dances (esp. Halloween dance or sadie-hawkins) were much more fun because there was way less pressure. You could just show up and vibe.
Sorry you had that experience with prom. I can relate to the stress part, my own school prom had some issues too. It’s tradition here in the last school semester to go around asking classmates in the style of marriage proposals if they’d like to be their prom date. I am not introverted but wasn’t well-liked and had a reputation due to how a past relationship ended (to the point where people would respond by mockingly asking “why don’t you ask your old BF, oh wait”), so when my older brother (who is trans, female to male) mentioned wanting to experience a genuine prom while being himself, he became my senior prom companion. Except when we showed up, all anyone wanted to do was shoo us away, even after prepping. It took a toll.