Prom Dress

I was a very beautiful child, seriously. My mother took great pains to make sure I was always primed and primped for various occasions. She enrolled me in dance lessons at the very young age and also had me competing in beauty pageants too. I am not sure why but I was born with an extremely rebellious streak and HATE people telling me what to do, this streak started very early and so I absolutely refused to dress “girly” when I had any choice in the matter. This anti-girly streak lasted well into my adult years too. However deep inside me I am a girly-girl and have always been and this hidden girly-girl desire was passivated many times in my life but today I was thinking about my senior prom.

I was estranged from my mother during most of my high school years and as a result of the estrangement I was financially cut off too. I don’t know why but my mother decided to help me pay for my prom dress. She took me to Las Vegas to shop for a dress and we found the most beautiful dress. We located it at Neiman Marcus, an original and super expensive by anyone’s standards and she bought it for me. Of course I was supposed to pay her for half of the dress but she forgave the debt later too.

I arrived at my senior prom, and I am not embellishing here I had most beautiful dress on. I had on a red carpet, Hollywood dress and I felt like I was the most beautiful women at the prom. In all honesty I think I was the most beautiful woman there too. All these years later it still is one of the best nights of my life and all because of the dress. I still have that dress though there is no physical way I will ever fit into it again.

I wrote this in an effort to repair my relationship with my mother. I have spent a vast majority of my life being angry with my mother, and though she has many faults I can no longer blame her for all my personal faults. I guess it is time for me to grow up and claim accountability for the person I am.