Prom

I am not a huge fan of prom, simply put. However, I did make a trip home to see my sister head to her first one.

To me prom is superficial. In high school it seems that it is only getting more of a fashion contest as time goes on as well. People are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to get a 17 year-old to look like a star for what only adds up to be less than 10 hours. To me that doesn't seem worth it. High schoolers are tanning to the point of craziness, because who needs to be that fakely dark in April? Not to mention all the increased risk of cancer from tanning that much. I guess I'm all together against 'fake baking.'

As the market starts to realize the extremes parents are going to please their kids with these dresses, they crank up the price! Why not? Parents who want to please their kids will pay for it. And the hair, really? Let's spend a lot for 57 bobbypins and gallon of hairspray. Fake nails are another thing that drives me nuts, the nails are insanely long and for an athlete they need to be off within the next week for most cases.

I suppose I may be a bit harsh on prom, but in high school I had a great group of friends who felt the same way. We attempted to boycott our Junior prom, but many of our parents told us we would regret the decision and highly insisted we at least attend for a bit. So the goal of the whole thing was to spend nothing on it. Libby and I got dresses from my cousins, we were going to do each other's hair, said no way to tanning and nails and were literally only paying for flip-flops. For after prom we were camping out by the river at a friends house and our parents to support our 'slight' boycott decided they would all put together a breakfast for us. Unfortunately for me I didn't get to attend with my friends and spent a couple nights in the critical care unit in the hospital, with little recollection of the incident that landed me there. While not what my mom wants to remember from my Junior prom, it's what happened. And trust me I am thankful to have my life and a family that cares about me.

Senior prom most my friends succeeded in their boycott attempts, and I attended to say I at least attended one of these events. I went through finding a dress, again borrowing because I refuse to spend money on something I will only where once, and having a friend who was boycotting prom do my hair. I spent an hour or so at prom before taking off to Ames. Where the next day we participated in the ISU triathlon doughnut run....a 5k where you eat doughnuts every quarter mile to reduce your time. Trust me it was an interesting thing. In the afternoon we cheered on those who successfully boycotted prom in a mountain bike race in Boone. Not what a traditional prom goer would do, but why follow the trend?

Leah did make me proud when she decided not to purchase a dress, but rather go through many people to find a dress to borrow. She also at least thought of boycotting the tanning, but ended up doing it and gaining thousands of freckles and no real tan, because she is a redhead. She and 2 friends had a family friend do their hair, so didn't have to travel far to get a bunch of bobbypins stuck in her hair. She did look gorgeous by the time she was ready to leave! And it was great for me to be able to get a bunch of pictures from my final photography project.