Skipping the Prom...

QUOTE OF THE DAY: how long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.

For some reason, I’ve been reflecting on my High School years a lot lately. Maybe at 32 I’m already having that dreaded mid-life crisis, because suddenly I’m thinking about the “What-ifs.” (What if I had let G.H. kiss me after all? What if I had gone for that role in that play? What if I had gotten brave and actually asked D.A. to the Sadie Hawkins’ dance? What if I had gone out for Volleyball instead of Cheerleading…)

But my biggest What-If, is definitely Prom. I am slightly embarrassed to admit it, but I did not partake in what could possibly be the definitive crowning tradition of High School. The reason? Simple: I just didn’t go.
Here’s a funny line from one of my favorite 80’s movies:

“I had this girlfriend who didn’t go to hers (prom) and every once in a while she gets this really terrible feeling, you know? Like something is missing. She checks her purse…she checks her keys, she counts her kids… she goes crazy—and then she realizes, that NOTHING IS MISSING…she decided that it was side effects from skipping the Prom.”
--Iona, from the movie “Pretty In Pink”

I didn’t go to Prom, because at the time, I really didn’t see the point. I didn’t have a boyfriend, and the guy I would have liked to go with (my best guy friend) happened to have a seriously mushy girlfriend situation. So he wasn’t an option.
Granted, I could technically say I was "asked" to the prom, but the guy (who happened to be a sophomore and was someone I would have referred to at the time as a “Major Loser”) had already asked three other girls before me (so I had to turn him down to retain my dignity) and he asked two other girls after me before one of them finally said yes—so never mind…I guess that doesn’t really count.
I figured it would all be O.K. I rationalized that someday, something would make up for the fact that I missed my Prom.
Then I decided that someday I would get an Academy Award for either A) Best Actress or B) Best Screenplay, and during my acceptance speech, I would tearfully confess (while waving the heavy statuette in the air):

“I never went to my Senior Prom—THIS makes up for it!”

...But clearly, I won’t be winning an Academy Award in this lifetime, so I’m not sure exactly how I will get closure for choosing to skip the Prom. I still kick myself, because when my guy friend (with the mushy girlfriend situation) found out that I had missed it, he said he would have taken me, if I’d wanted him to.
Well Dammit.
So, I could have gone to Prom, even if it was just with a friend. This much I know. But honestly, in the grand scheme of things, is it really that important? Must be, otherwise I wouldn’t be dwelling on it now, 15 years later! I mean, think about it: Prom, Graduation. Those are pretty high up there on the “Importance” scale for the average high school kid!
But I am hoping the defective years of High School (now happily a distant memory) haven't played too big a part in who I am now. During High School I was worried about my image and self-conscious to the point of pain. But I think I've figured things out now. It's not that I consider myself better than when I was in High School, now I am just what I like to call: "Over It."

In that vein, I am invincible. I am the Non-Self-Conscious Woman of Steel. Heck, I can walk to the mailbox (across the street) in my PJ's and an overcoat and not run away screaming from embarrassment when my children hand me boogers in public or ask the lady sitting next to them in church (very loudly) why she's so fat--and I don't implode when the doorbell rings and its the neighbor coming for a visit and and my front room looks like I'm having a garage sale.
Get this: I can even run to the supermarket without having taken a shower first.

That is being "over it." I can call myself successful.

And also, yes, I will eventually get my closure about skipping Prom…that much I have decided.