Senior Prom Memory
This is my niece, Sheila. I’ve written about her before. Tonight was her prom. My mom sent me this pict a little earlier this evening. She’s a senior at the school - Forbush High School - where I went. She’ll graduate from Forbush in a little more than a month. If I haven’t shared this before, I’m quite proud of her. She’s smart and does a lot for her family. They will be lost next year when she goes to college.
This picture makes me think about myself at this age and what was going on in my head. [Note: Sometimes this site makes me feel as if I am building a self shrine. It is a little weird.] I remember renting a tux from the local mall for my senior prom. I felt a little guilty because some buddies and I went in together and rented a limo the year earlier. I didn’t do it my senior year because I had to rent that tux. I pieced together parts of my Show Choir outfit for my junior prom and I didn’t think it would work again my senior year.
Most of my senior year is a blur, actually. There was so much going on. I missed 40+ days of school my senior year with school related activities. I guess I remember some of that stuff. I wish I could find my high school resume. I’ve looked for it before, but I think something happened to my only hard copy and the floppy disk and computer are long-gone.
I remember being a scared and excited about moving to New York. I didn’t like to talk about it. I thought people might think that I thought I was better than everyone else. I didn’t feel that way. I just wanted to do something different. No one had ever even heard of NYU.
To that point, I always thought that I would go to a NC public college. Really, I thought I would go to UNC. I had this image that I would drive a jeep, be a hippie and as a member of a band, I would be the big man on campus.
As one of more than 30K students at NYU, it was hard to be the big man on campus. I certainly didn’t drive. There were so much to do, I never had time to join a band. And my sophomore year, I cut my hair.
Back to the prom. I drove my truck. Yes, I had a truck - a red and silver Dodge Dakota. I loved that truck. My mom ended up selling it to a neighbor - a close family friend - after I went away to college. We used the money to help pay tuition.
