It is July 2nd and my daughter has just left for her high school prom. I am sitting on my lazy boy feeling the way one feels when something impossible has been accomplished. I would be happy just sitting here for about 4 hours just doing nothing and thinking nothing. Only a parent with a daughter who has gotten ready for prom will understand how I am feeling. This event involves buying a dress, buying shoes, buying the tickets, stressing about the dress not being right, buying a second dress that is right, returning the shoes for the 1st dress, buying shoes for the 2nd dress, buying the clutch and hairpiece, having the 2nd dress altered, finding out you can't return the 1st dress, buying the after-party dress, buying the after-party shoes, booking the after-prom room at Grand Bend, getting makeup done, getting hair done, and finally finding out at 3:30 that you are supposed to be ready at 4:30, not 5:30. Today is 10 days after my daughter's 18th birthday and as I sit here, trying to make sense of this whole prom thing, I find myself thinking about the day 10 days after my own 18th birthday.
It was April 24th 1974, the day I got married for the 1st time. I was a young girl, and I hadn't even had my high school graduation ceremony yet. There I was..... 18... married and working full time at a nursing home. I made my own wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses too and I remember my sisters wearing yellow floppy hats. There is no way to explain how wrong the whole thing was, but it happened and I can't say that I remember it as a happy time in my life. But I can use my own life experience to give me a different perspective today.
I saw my daughter today looking so beautiful in the most stunning prom dress ever... hair and makeup perfect and she was smiling and I knew she was happy.... and that we'd pulled it off. Yes, I do allow myself to take a lot credit for the successful outcome of these preparations! And my heart is happy just knowing that my daughter will have a high school prom that she will remember with great joy :) Was it all worth it? Darn right it was! Would I want to do it again? Ask me in 3 months after I forget!
