My Junior and Senior Proms #AKwritingChallenge Day 18

I went to school with the same kids from about second grade through freshman year. My parents bought land in Evergreen while I was still in middle school, and built a house up there. They were ready to move while I was still in ninth grade, but I was not excited at all about leaving my school or the friends I'd had for so long. 

Okay, not excited is an understatement. I was devastated, being pulled along behind my parents kicking and screaming.

My high school was in Idaho Springs, but both it and my house resided in Clear Creek County, which meant that I rode a bus for forty-five minutes in the morning and then again in the afternoon. The trip really only took about twenty minutes by car, but most of it was mountain roads and it snows here in Colorado. Sometimes it snows a lot in Colorado. 

Clear Creek Secondary School was not a very big school. It housed kids from seventh grade through twelfth, but my class had only eighty-nine students. Had I stayed in Westminster, my graduating class would have totaled every kid that attended my new, much smaller school. It's hard being the new kid - especially in a school where everyone knows everyone else - and going in at the beginning of sophomore year ... well, it wasn't an easy thing. But, it could've been a hell of a lot worse than it was.

I made friends immediately. I'm a friendly girl. I'm not incredibly extroverted, but I smile a lot and I don't struggle to make friends. The school worked with me and scheduled study hall for my first period. I was a competitive ice skater back then, and on skating days I was about twenty minutes late coming into class. This saved me from missing anything important. In case you thought I'd forgotten the topic of the post, here's where all of this information comes into play. I met Kelly, who would become my one and only high school boyfriend in this class. 

And that's where prom comes in.

I did go to prom. Two of them, actually, and I had the same date for both. 

Junior prom

I'm pretty sure the after prom was held at the Indian Hot Springs. They set it up like it was a big casino and there was swimming and food. I was barely sixteen in this photo. I look at it now and think about what a baby I was. I was so young. Thank God for Kelly. He was one of the good guys. 

I need to mention this dress, because we all know that if you're a girl, the dress is a huge part of prom. My mom made this dress. She's pretty much the best seamstress this world has ever known. She's made a lot of dresses for me over the years, (including the one I was married in) so the fact that she made this one isn't a surprise. It was actually made for a high school play, "The King and I". The skirt was big enough for a hoop. I was kind of into pink back then, so the dress wound up being perfect for prom.

Senior Prom

Here we are at our senior prom. Again ... the dress. This was actually a bridesmaid's dress. In an earlier post I wrote about hiding on a friend's stairs when my dad came to visit my house once. That friend was Kim. She moved from our neighborhood before I did - to a small town in Nebraska - but we'd kept in touch. She asked me to be in her wedding the June after I graduated from high school, and I decided to get my money's worth out of this dress and wear it for both the wedding and prom. It worked out well.

Can I mention the bangs? I'd pretty much graduated from the 80's style eye makeup here - this was in 1989 and I'd decided to put the multi-layered eye shadow look to rest - but I've got the big hair going on. God, I loved the 80's. Every single thing about the 80's. I can still recall the scent of Aqua Net hair spray. It's a fond memory. That and Love's Baby Soft body spray.

Unfortunately, my second prom wasn't as fun as the first. There was a lot of high school drama going on - nothing anyone would be interested in now, trust me - but still, I'm glad I got to go. It turned out to be a lot more fun than that wedding I attended later in Nebraska. But I digress.

And because it does tie in, I'd like to state for the record that I'm also glad my parents made me move to Evergreen. Everything would have turned out differently for me had they not made that leap - high school, prom, life. The whole thing. I'm sorry now that I kicked and screamed so hard. Maybe it will make you both feel better knowing that you were right - and that now I know that ... and thank you for it.