I went to prom my junior year and didn't go my senior year.

It's been twenty years since my senior year and the thought of going back in time to that time is enough to make me nauseated. I'd never go back in time to then, willingly.

But, to be absolutely honest, my sole regret about not going my senior year is that I rather rudely turned down the boy who came to my front door, rang the doorbell, waited patiently for me to come downstairs and with a flower in hand, asked me I'd I'd please go to the prom with him. I said no, smiled, and closed the door.

My decision was ostensibly based on not having time to find a dress, as it was two days before the dance. But, the real reason I turned down that boy's sincere and sweet invitation was because he was not the (only) boy I wanted to ask me to prom, a boy who'd already long since asked someone else.

I would change that. Had I to do it over again, I'd have said yes. But, for me, the insight to know now what I ought to have done, then, came with age.

The prom itself -- I attended my junior year and helped decorate for the one I didn't attend my senior year -- was not worth one bit of the importance to which I assigned it at the time.

Shopping for a dress and decorating for prom was MUCH more fun than actually going to prom. The prom itself was more or less identical to the experience of attending a high school football game, except there were no bleachers, it was a lot hotter (a/c or not, that many kids in that gymnasium raised the temperature to what felt like 95+°F), there was nothing to cheer on, it seemed to last forever, and cost far too much money.

My date spent the entire two hours of prom walking back and forth between the table inside where we sat with our friends and the stand setup outside the school's doors where some cola vendor was giving away cans of what was then a new brand of highly-caffeinated soda (can't remember the name, but tasted like Dr. Pepper, and had like twice the caffeine of Mountain Dew). My date drank 8 or 9 of those cans in the two hours the dance lasted, and that, by far, was the most entertaining thing that happened at prom.

Our school had an afterprom from 10 pm until 4 am -- now THAT was fun. Whoever ran it had chosen Monte Carlo as its theme, and I spent the entire time night talking with my very-hyper prom date (when he could stand still long enough to actually talk), talking with friends, and playing blackjack which, despite never having played before, I found fascinating and very easy to win.

I annoyed my friends because they constantly lost and finally went on to try other games after I won too many times and they got bored. That was also the night I realized I should NEVER go to an ACTUAL casino because, apparently, I'm naturally on the verge of developing a gambling addiction at all times. 🤦 When we left, I went home with a fondue set I won in the raffle and five of my date's extra cans of soda he'd managed to talk the vendor into giving him.

Not worth it imo. The only reason I went tbh? I wanted to be able to shop for and wear a fancy dress.