My experience with Junior Prom was all I had envisioned it to be — at least the dance itself. However, while the venue was breathtaking and the food delicious, preparing for prom was far from glorious. If anything, it was stressful and painful due to my poor planning skills.
After waking at an ungodly hour of 5 a.m. to shower, I turned to my homework, which I (my mom) hoped I would finish before prom. Unfortunately, as a sleep-deprived junior, even after a cold shower, I was back asleep within half an hour.
With pre-prom at junior Shazia Gupta’s house starting at 2 p.m., I decided to go to senior Eunju Pak’s house by 1:15 p.m to get ready. I spent the rest of the morning in agitation thanks to my 6-year-old sister’s undeveloped piano playing which added to my growing frustration.
After completing photo forms on the way to Eunju’s house, I arrived to an empty house. Believing I was the only person in her house, I panicked at the sound of footsteps, only to realize that it was her dog Angel and her sister, sophomore Yoonju Pak.
At 2:15 p.m., Eunju had still not returned, and conflicted, I texted junior Aakash Thumaty to save me. By the time he got to Eunju’s house, Eunju texted “two minutes away” leaving Aakash confused when I told him to just leave with the people he was already taking.
By 2:20 p.m., with Eunju standing on a chair and me holding hairspray and the curling iron, Eunju began curling my hair, only to realize she forgot to brush it before she started. We made good progress in 10 minutes, but I spoke too soon when I told her it looked good when she dropped the curling iron on me five minutes later. There is now a brown splotch of dead skin on my right shoulder. #thanksEUNJU
Because her parents did not know that I was in her house, we struggled to get me out of the house after we finished, eventually deciding that jumping her fence was the only solution. In a dress. Without shoes on.
After, because I and my date sophomore Kevin Chow struggle with communication, Eunju and I spent another 15 minutes driving around the neighborhood looking for his house. After calling and texting around seven people, we found his address and arrived at his house at 3:20 p.m. with school pictures at 3:30 p.m.
Upon arriving at Kevin’s house, he opened the door in a T-shirt and jeans and informed us that he had been doing math. Needless to say, he had to dress hurriedly.
Miraculously, we got the school parking lot at 3:32 p.m., but I realized that I had left the photo forms at Eunju’s house. Deciding that we would figure it out later, we took corsage and boutonniere pictures in the gym, took school pictures and decided to go to the last of pre-prom photos.
Although pre-prom was more stressful than it needed to be, at least I’ll know to plan better next time. The rest of the prom went smoothly with the exception of an incident with Shirley Temples and another that involved my dress as a cape — but that’s another story.