For the past three weeks, I have heard bubbly titters and chatters about one thing: prom. Prom, coming from the word promenade: meaning “to take a leisurely walk, ride, or drive in public, especially to meet or be seen by others.” It entails the dress, the date, the corsage, etc. It also entails planning, and stressing, and paying for stuff, and more planning, and more stressing.

Stressing me out.

Do you have any idea how much prom dresses cost? A whole freaking lot. Do you have any idea how much money a college-bound student has?

Not a whole freaking lot.

I don’t have a lot of time, either.

I’m planning for college, studying for finals, working on a long-overdue driver’s license, and wrapping up extracurricular activities. And you’re telling me I ought to get ready for prom? In the words of our beloved Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

I’ll admit I was kind of excited for prom at first. I’m not morally opposed to social gatherings and I quite like girly dresses and whatnot. In fact, it was only a couple weeks ago I was scrolling through dresses, daydreaming about “the perfect night,” the whole sha-bang. But then I realized that legitimate planning was required…as well as legitimate dollars. And then I remembered I’m not one inclined for parties, and prom is basically a party.

And so my rhinestone-encrusted spectacle became yet another adolescent headache.

It made me stressed.

And then two weeks ago, I was griping with my good friend (who was not going to prom) about how this was so much unnecessary tension and then he just said to me, “You know you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

I don’t have to go.

If I don’t want to.

If I don’t want to.

I don’t want to!!!!

So instead, I spent the Saturday with friends, and we watched movies and it wasn’t stressful at all.

For the record, I have nothing at all against prom, I really don’t. But the whole point is to have a good time and my idea of a good time is more about staying in, and frankly I don’t know how I could’ve planned/paid for it all. But for those of you who did, I salute you, and I hope you had the best night of your lives.