i hate prom

From Pinterest

I hate prom. I hate it so so much. Sorry, I know hate is a strong word. My school’s having its prom this coming weekend, and I am dreading it so much. I’ve probably said “I don’t want to go!” multiple times this week, and I don’t think I wanna stop.

For a day most girls look forward to, I look backward. I hate the weeks leading up to prom, I hate picking out dresses, I hate doing my makeup, and I hate taking pictures. Let me explain why.

I hate the weeks leading up to prom because it’s really hard for my friends and me to plan times and events for all of us. We have a really big friend group, and of course, we all want to accommodate each other’s needs, but it’s hard when it’s upward of 20 people! We probably change our dinner reservations five times, and the timing between pictures and the dance ten times. It’s a very stressful time.

Picking out dresses has always been really hard for me to do, and for the past two proms, I’ve just immediately picked out whatever dress fit and was somewhat cute. Not something utterly jaw-dropping. I don’t think buying a $500 dress to wear for 6 hours is worth it. Sorry, not sorry! I don’t like to sit and stress about what I’m going to order, so that means I place the orders for my dresses months and months before the big day.

As a big perfectionist, it’s hard for me to like how my makeup looks when the day arrives. Packed in rooms with nine other girls, all needing to curl their hair and start their own makeup, or glue on press-ons, it gets hot easily, and it gets hard to focus. You’re also trying not to take too long to get ready for fear that you’re holding the group up. My makeup also never seems to cooperate with me when I really need it to. It’ll get all splotchy or disappear seconds after I put it on. And in pictures, you’re wondering if I even applied makeup in the first place!

The worst part about prom is taking pictures. I hate being performative. One thing I’ve noticed this year from being a senior and having cameras shoved in my face left and right is that it’s hard for me to smile naturally. Nothing about a camera in your face is natural! Taking senior photos, it was so hard not to be awkward and so hard to smile the way I would while relaxed, because I never am in these situations. During photo-ops, I feel like I try my hardest and then look back at the pictures and am like, “I really look like that?” I think a lot of people can relate to this scenario, but it honestly makes prom feel like such a performance. It’s hard not to get into your head about what’s supposed to be a special day, but I always find a way to reminisce on how badly I posed in photo thirteen in our shared album or how my hair was sticking up in this one place in photo twenty-seven.

Might I also mention that I am a horrible dancer? I get on that dance floor (playing horrible music, by the way) and crank out a couple of stiff moves and am done for the night. It’s not my cup of tea. The whole day is not my cup of tea. I drink coffee. This year, since it is my senior year, I want to try to stay in the moment and just try to focus on having fun because so far every school dance has been the opposite of that!