Paige's Final 2017

Portfolio Paige O’Quinn 5/17/17

Was prom worth it?

As a little girl playing “dress up” with my friends and sisters had to be my favorite pastime and obviously becoming a Disney princess was my life goal. Once I got a little older, however, I began to realize dressing like a princess everyday wasn’t the easiest, cheapest, or most practical way to live. This is why events like prom become such a big deal to teenage girls. We spend incredibly too much money for one night, become overly emotional, and maybe even a little crazy in the days leading up to our big night.

The question us girls with big dreams of winning prom queen and having the best dress forget, or just neglect, to ask ourselves is, was it worth it? Is the experience of prom worth the expenses, the hassle and all of the stress it puts on our fragile, hormonal hearts.

In my case, was an $85 ticket, $400 dress, $60 shoes, two nights at a hotel and much more worth the experience I got out of it?

I’ll lay it out simply.......

Did I spend a little too much money for one night? Obviously.

If I could do it over would I spend less? Absolutely not!

Girls have two opportunities to fulfill that suppressed childhood dream of looking and acting like a princess, prom and their wedding day. Both events can cause a girl to cry pointlessly due to excessive stress, which I may or may not be guilty of, but also have the absolute best time of her life.

Prom for me was worth every cent of debt I am now in with my parents, every mental breakdown and how broke I am going to be until the direct deposit for my next check rolls around. Considering I am usually very conscious with my money and what I spend it on I’ll let you imagine how much panicking and crying happened Monday night when I got home and realized I had well below a dollar left in my bank account. Saying this, there is still not one thing I would change about my prom experience and I would do it all again if given the opportunity.

Prom was worth it to me, but I want to know how it was for you! Comment below with your prom experience and whether or not it was worth it for you.

Reflection My article, “Was prom worth it?”, was by far my favorite article of the year. I got to share my own experiences through my writing and it was the first of my own posts I put on the blog. Filled from top to bottom with my own sense of self-deprecating humor there isn’t much I would change about the way I wrote it. However, I am not a perfect person and there were some aspects of my writing that could be improved upon. To start with, it was lacking the intricately specific details such as what I dressed up like, how much money was left in my account after prom, and where my next paycheck was coming from. These specifics make it easier for a person to relate to an article and connect with what the writer is saying. Besides personal specifics, my article also lacked the specifics required to tie each part of the article back to the central idea. Something that was added to my article before it was published was the reiteration of how prom is one of the teenage girls’ only nights to feel like a princess.

Other than that I really do believe this was one of my favorite articles because it was entertaining to write and I am sure it will be entertaining to read when I look back on my old work later in life.

Personal Essay

What is the most important lesson you ever had to learn the hard way?

I have never been the type of person who could invest only half my time and energy into something. When I was younger, and didn’t realize how much it was hurting me, I used to refuse to turn in any work if I knew I didn’t put my full effort into doing it. I preferred taking a zero to letting my teachers think I couldn’t get full credit. I was never the girl who talked to everyone in the school. I had two to three close friends, best friends, that knew all my secrets and I knew theirs.

I couldn’t be half a student or half a friend; I gave my all into everything I did. However, as I have grown older I have begun to realize that this is not the easiest or most practical way to live.

One of the most difficult lessons I have had to learn in my life is that no matter how much you care about and try to help a person nothing will make a difference if they don’t want to be helped. This year I have had to watch one of my closest friends go from a hard working, dedicated student to having to consider the idea that she might have to repeat senior year. One of the funniest, most strong-willed girls I know succumb to peer pressure and fall victim to the misfortunes of her life.

Throughout her sink to rock bottom I was there with her, trying to hold her head above water. What I didn’t realize though, was that while I was keeping her up I was allowing myself to sink for no reason other than trying to be the best friend I could be.

I fought with my friends and family for weeks. My mom knew I was just trying to help but she said to me several times that it didn’t matter if she was having a hard time, if she wasn’t being a friend to me there was no reason I should allow myself to deal with the stress of trying to be hers. For about a week and a half she stayed at my house, hiding from her mom and psychotic ex-boyfriend, but eventually my parents had to tell her to go home, or at least go back to school. They told me I was no longer allowed to drive her around everywhere, I couldn’t afford the gas and they refused to help me pay if they knew I was still driving her.

It was then that she got angry. She didn’t understand that I was doing everything in my power to still help her and be her friend; all she saw was my “unwillingness” to help a friend in need.

At first she stopped talking to me completely, no texts, no calls, no overly excited waves when we passed each other driving, and at work all I got was a frigidly cold shoulder. Then came her being spiteful, which was definitely the worst part to deal with. She was hanging out with new people; people I had never seen or heard of before. She would send me pictures on snapchat of them out at parties, doing things she never would have done as my friend. It wasn’t that I was jealous or hurt that she had new friends, I was just worried about her, even after everything she had done. I was worried because she was still my friend, at least in my eyes; she had been there for me when I had needed her throughout the years so I was determined to be there for her too.

I knew she was no longer going to her classes but when I tried to talk to her about anything to do with school she just dismissed me and said she had it under control. Her new friends were older and she really didn’t now anything about them when I asked. I voiced my concerns to my parents and they just said if she wanted to be friends with those types of people there was nothing I could do to stop her, but that wasn’t good enough of an answer for me.

I fought and tried to make her see reason, but she simply just didn’t want to listen.

Later, she did end up going to prom with my other friends and I, and I’m glad she did. If she hadn’t come, and messed up the way she did, I would probably still be bending over backwards for her to this day. If there is one thing in this world that I really hate, it is being lied to, and I don’t think a lie has ever hurt me worse than the ones she started to materialize that weekend. Finding out she had lied to me, not just once but several times throughout the next few weeks, hit me like a bowling ball to the face. Everyone said things like, “ you should have seen it coming”, “I’m not surprised”, or “It was only a matter of time before you found out” but I didn’t see it, not until that point.

I was so set on being a friend to her, that I didn’t realize how absolutely terrible she had been to me for so long. I realized that no matter how hard I worked to help her she made no improvements, she was becoming a person that I had nothing in common with and I was so worried about helping her get back that I didn’t realize she didn’t want to be that person anymore.

Giving up on her and letting her fend for herself was probably the hardest decision I ever had to make as a friend, but it was a choice I had to make. I learned that it wasn’t my job to save her especially since she clearly had no interest in being saved.

Editor Self-Evaluation

#1

This year I feel that I have strongly been a part of bettering this publication in becoming a reputable and consistent news site. We have created a blog for ourselves this year, which is getting us a significant amount of views per article when on our old site we were lucky to get one visit per day. What started out as a joke while bouncing around ideas has now become a reality for a staff that doesn’t seem to care much about it. This is why I also tried to take as much part as I could in recruiting new staffers for next year that will be hard working and appreciate the platform they are being given. Discussing with writers and editors what our readers actually want to read during brainstorm is also something that was attempted to try to better our staffs reputation, however, not many writers this year minded if nobody read their work, therefore, we didn’t have much work that was worth publishing.

#2

Approving and editing all articles prior to publication was a large part of what I did as Editor-in-Chief this year. Due to the lack of staffers, and therefore editors, a great amount of the editing before posting fell onto my shoulders. After the editors graded the articles they came to me. I graded them myself, edited the articles and occasionally gave them back to staffers for corrections and posted them to the blog.

Most of the time I was being given articles that had not been edited at all by the editors and sometimes had to rearrange the entire article before it could be published. All article topics were approved at brainstorms where the angle of the piece was discussed as well.

Many articles this year were based off of great ideas and could have been wonderful additions to our publication, however, I could not approve of them being published based on a lack of research, quotes, a central idea or even a point at all.