In 2008 “High School Musical 3″ just came out in theaters and I was so excited for my senior prom coming up in nine years. Every school dance I attended was just preparation for, what at the time seemed like, the biggest event of my high school experience. I went to four dances per year of middle school to perfect how long it took me to do my makeup, my hair, put on my dress and have a mental breakdown. If you are wondering it takes approximately three hours, give or take the length of the mental breakdown. If you are like me, I like to give myself at least 15 minutes to freak out about an out of place strand of hair, a fake eyelash not sticking to my lid or any other beauty emergency.

I was lucky enough my junior year to go to two proms which I took as trial runs for my senior prom that was still a year away. I got to really test out my getting ready skills, practice how I would pose for pictures and see where to NOT go for dinner. These things are more important than you think. If you’ve ever been you understand the panic that occurs the whole day, from when you wake up until the moment you get home.

On the day of my “Preparation Prom” almost everything went wrong. I woke up and immediately rushed to my prom dress to make sure she hadn’t run away. Luckily she hadn’t, but I suddenly realized there was a strong scent of body odor all along the top of dress. Clearly someone had worn the dress to an event, danced and sweated in it and then returned it. My mental breakdown began much earlier than I had planned and it was all downhill from there. I called a dry cleaners and asked if they could steam wash the dress and try and get the smell out. They said yes and I rushed to the other side of town to de-stink my dress. I was already behind schedule and they said the dress wouldn’t be ready until 4 o’clock, which was only an hour before my date had planned to pick me up. By this time it was already 11 a.m. and I needed to get home to do my makeup before my hair appointment at 3 p.m. I drove home and met my friend there to start doing our makeup. Thankfully nothing went wrong, but 3 o’clock was approaching so we left the house and went to my hair appointment.

I would like to start off by saying that I lack originality. I like solid colors, minimal makeup and I don’t usually do anything with my hair other than straighten it, even though I was born with naturally straight hair. I like to take risks even though I immediately regret them and this was one of those times. The nice woman asked me what I wanted to do with my hair and I told her I didn’t know (even though all I wanted was for her to straighten my hair, but it seemed like a waste of money to pay someone to straighten my hair). She said that she had some ideas and that she was “bored with doing basic prom hairstyles.” I panicked, because I truly wanted a basic prom hairstyle and she was about get creative all over my head. She ended up doing a braid on the top of my head and curling the rest of my hair, it looked ridiculous. I was freaking out on the inside, but just nodded and smiled at this woman who entirely messed up my hair. I paid, left and picked up my dress that hopefully no longer smelled.

We were running dangerously behind and I was afraid we would show up to my house completely unready and our dates would be there to pick us up. Thankfully they were running behind too and we had just enough time to slip on our dresses and do some final preparations. While putting on my dress I decided to start crying about my hair, because it truly was a mess. I took out the braid and shook out the curls and ended up wasting my money, but it was worth it.

Right when our dates showed up it started to rain. Not like a light sprinkle, but a scary downpour that set off a flood warning. My friend’s date was driving a small, low to the ground car that only made it a few blocks before too much water got in the engine and it stopped running. Thankfully, we were close to a friend’s house so we stayed there until the rain stopped. The rest of the night was mediocre thanks to my date who refused to dance with me, even when “Fergalicious” by Fergie played. Overall it was a very stressful day that never seemed to get better, but I am a stronger person because of it.