Senior Prom : Hockaday Edition

Senior Prom. Nothing more needs to be said to inevitably flood your mind with memories. The name of your prom date, your dress, the matching tuxedo vest, the flowers... everything. The feeling of emerging adulthood. That's what I remember. A night of elegance and independence, and one last hoorah with high school friends... Okay, well actually for the prom at my school, my friends and I ordered delivery pizza beforehand and picked our flowers off of the campus bushes so maybe there wasn't as much elegance involved in that one (but shhhh! Don't tell.). But all that aside, the proms I attended are nights that I will always remember. 

My senior prom was now eight years ago, and as I watched these beautiful young people bubbling with excitement, I couldn't help but smile. Senior year - the whole world laid out in front of you and every possibility still open. Charlie tagged along for these pictures (as he has also known these girls since they were sophomores) and afterward we couldn't help but reminisce about our high school dances together. We talked about how nervous we were; We talked about how hard we laughed as I struggled to put his boutonniere on; We talked about how his suits were always way too big for him, and how I was super disillusioned and thought I was fat (SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. Don't make yourself believe for a second that you aren't, because someday you'll look back at these photos without self-judgment and realize just how lovely you are.). We also talked about how, as wonderful as all of those dances were, we wish that we could have gone to one prom together too... but we got a wedding so I guess it evened out!

High school can be so hard, but it is also the sweetest time. A bridge between childhood and adulthood with real responsibilities, but also a whole lot of comfort and cushion when you need it. Enjoy it, sweet class of 2017. You are about to be given the entire world, and I can't wait to see what you will do with it.