I attended my senior prom with my then-boyfriend, and let me tell you, it sucked.

At my small school, generally only seniors attended prom, and underclassmen were only able to go if they were asked by a senior at our brother school.  Why, I have no idea, but I sort of wish I had gone as a junior because then I might have thought twice about going as a senior.

I had a great dress, six couples shared the cost of a limo, we went to eat at an expensive restaurant before prom (even though we were technically being served a meal at the dance) and unbeknownst to me, my hair looked like hell.  I found this out later when we got our pictures back, and it probably would have ruined my night if I’d known.   Thank you, best friend, for not mentioning it because you knew I would obsess about it all night.

Anyhoo, I think I paid a total of $300 for everything, which included dress, shoes, boutonniere, fake nails, glitter hairspray, (hey, it was the 80’s) and my share of the limo. My parents paid for my dress, I paid for everything else.  My at-the-time boyfriend paid for the tickets, his tux, my corsage, and the dinner.  He probably paid close to $300 as well.

So, a total of around $600 bucks for a night we spent arguing and sitting miserably on a couch in the lobby of the hotel.

This is why it boggles my mind that anyone would pay upwards of a thousand dollars, or even close to two thousand, for one night in high school.

Trust me kids, in the long run, high school means nothing.

I don’t know if my son will still be homeschooled by the time he reaches prom age, but you can bet that I won’t be shelling out anywhere near that amount to send him there.