Prom, grad, formal, many names for the same event. It’s a night where the graduating class and some parents and teachers dress up. Its a night many people dream about. It was certainly a night I had been looking forward too since I was 8 years old and saw Cinderella for the first time. I wanted a big ball gown and the glass slippers (at least as close as I could get) I never cared much about having prince charming at the ball, and I am glad I didn’t. I started looking for my dress in January and that was a big mistake. Because either it was too late to order gowns I wanted or they just had what they had, and because of that I had to try on 56 dresses before I found the one! It is easier for me to find a date than it was to find this dress.
But the shoes. Oh, the shoes. My shoes are the best part of my entire ensemble. I wore them during the graduation ceremony and most of the night. They are a gorgeous high heels that are covered in glitter and look silver and blue in different lights and they shine like diamonds, they are my glass slippers. I always had this perfect image of these shoes and they were fortunately a reality for me.
Now after these details were sorted I could focus on being ready for the big day. Graduation is a day that has kept me going for a long time and Since the beginning of Grade 12 I have been counting down the days till graduation.
The morning of, I woke up two hours earlier than usual to get ready. And luck would have it, I had to redo my face makeup four times before it looked good. I put on my little black dress and the glass slippers and I got in the car with my family. Being part of the school band and choir I had to perform both times and it was a special moment for me that day because for the last three years I had watched my friends wear their robes and caps and perform with us and then leave to join the lines for seating. This time I didn’t just take care of someone else’s instrument, I got to get up and join the line. My biggest fear was tripping or slipping on the stage and once they called my name, I could have sworn, I have never walked in five inch heels any better. After the ceremony I was pleasantly surprised with my best friend showing up to my ceremony even though he had school and for an hour after the ceremony my close friends and I just took pictures and ran around returning our robes and collecting our caps. The only thing I wanted after the ceremony was food, for some reason I was unbelievably hungry and all I specifically wanted was McDonalds. I got a Mcflurry, a large sprite, large fries, and a Bacon Mcdouble sandwich. It took us nearly an hour to reach back to our place and I had to start getting ready for grad. I used a curling iron for the first time in my life and still have two burns on my fingers from it. When I got ready all my parents and grandparents did was take pictures. My parents, especially my dad, insisted that they drive me to grad. I had to carry an extra pair of clothes for the after parties my friends and I were planning on going to.
My best friend showed up in a 2016 Audi R8 with her date in a gorgeous dress. She was stunned when she saw me in my dress since she had never actually seen it in person. My best friend and I ran to the bathroom in an attempt to fix her “grandma” up-do although we didn’t do much. As soon as we entered I was blown away. It was a gorgeous elegant set up with crystals and blue and white drop. We luckily had a table consisting mostly of friends and we were lucky #2, one of the first tables to get served and chosen to be escorted to the buffet. There were amazing speeches from one of my favourite science teachers and an amazing performance from an arts student. This teacher is the only teacher I know that would get away with calling everyone animals, and his sense of humour makes him an outstanding educator. I am glad in all honesty I had no date to this, because the first and only couples dance, I danced it with my best friend. She was looking for her date but he was no where to be found and by the time half the song was over, she was sitting down looking disappointed and I took my hand and asked, “would you do me the honour of dancing with me?” She laughed and agreed and that was probably the second best part of my night. A few hours later, nearing 11 p.m., my friends and I checked out of the dance, changed and went to the after party organized by some students at Ceili’s Modern Irish Pub in downtown. It might have been 11 at night, but most of us were in sun dresses or shorts because it was 30 degrees still! A lot of girls were people I had never met, we were dancing and we could barely hear each other. Even though the music was awful, we didn’t care because all of us were too happy anyways. I for the first time in my life twerked and it was with these girls.
Around 1 in the morning my friend and I left, and headed to McDonald’s for a quick bite before we reached our destination at 3 a.m.. But between grabbing a bite and going to a friend’s house to crash, I was alone in the car with a close friend. It was two in the morning, we were blasting 80’s music, and he had a sun roof. I had always wanted to have one of the infinite moments that Charlie in Perks of Being a Wallflower had always talked about. So I turned up Billie Jean, opened the sun roof and stood on my seat, he was driving on the highway and this was the best moment of my night, and one of the most memorable moments for me in life so far. The feeling of the wind hitting my face, the music, the dim street lights and how the stars looked and how the air would change under the bridge. And not to be cliché, but in that moment, for those few minutes I felt infinite.
This day was my Cinderella moment, but without the clock striking midnight and having to return back to reality till late the next day.