Homecoming Hiccups

If Homecoming is coming up or you recently celebrated this annual tradition at your school, we bet it’s on your mind. Ahh, Homecoming, that fall ritual when teachers let learning slide for a day and costumes are completely acceptable school attire. Here at ec, we remember how much fun Homecoming was because we’ve chosen to forget all the bad parts—you know, like painstakingly decorating that float for the parade, the gossip and rumors that fly about why some girls got on the Homecoming court, and all the agonizing about whom you should go with to the dance.

Unfortunately, in getting this month’s issue ready for printing, the “Dressed for Distress: A Homecoming Horror Story” article on page 6 caused a few Homecoming memories to resurface that I (production editor Emily) would rather have forgotten. Like how in ninth grade, I didn’t have a date to the Homecoming dance, so my best friend’s boyfriend set me up on a date with his friend. I should have known it wasn’t meant to be when he took me to Wendy’s for the pre-dance meal. That, and he smoked the entire way to the restaurant and back. Needless to say, the “date” was basically over before it began, and I never saw the guy again. (Come to think of it, I can’t even remember his name!)

And then the next year, a fellow tenth grader asked me to the dance, two days before it actually happened. (Nothing like making a girl wait until the last minute. Hey guys, please don’t do this to your potential dates. Ask at least a week or two in advance and bail her out early from the anxiety—she’ll really appreciate it!) I was excited about being asked (no Wendy’s with a smoker this year!) until I remembered that he was the shortest guy in our grade. Now, I’m not a tall girl myself, but I wasn’t too happy when we got the pictures back and, even despite wearing shoes without tall heels, I was definitely taller than my date.

And then how about my senior year, when all the hard work my classmates and I put into our parade float went completely unnoticed by the judges? (Come on! Lions made out of chicken wire covered by tissue paper tufts are NOT easy to make!) The senior class at my school always got first place in the competition. That is, until I was in the senior class. Talk about being disappointed. To top it all off, it rained that night, which is always good for making that hairstyle you worked on for hours look just like it did when you got out of the shower, which was not exactly what I wanted to look like in my final Homecoming pictures of my high school career.

How about you? Any Homecoming misfortunes that you’d rather forget? If so, leave us the details in a comment! We’d love to hear from you.