Dear Future Prom Goers,

Alright, so get this. I was taking a trip down memory lane the other day with my bro Mukund Premkumar, and then I remembered high school. Then I remembered senior year. Man, those were the glory days. Sure, not ever doing homework, chillin’ 24/7 with the boys, getting those varsity letters, and being on homecoming court was sweet and all, but I’d throw it all away for that one magical night. You know what I’m talking about.

Oh man, Prom was so magical. There is literally no other word that could be used to describe it. Memories are flowing through my being like beer from the nozzle of a keg. Dude, beer. It’s almost like taking a trip down memory lane or something. But I digress. From the moment I bought a five dollar corsage from Hy-Vee to that final slow dance with my girl (yeah, you know who you are), I realized that would be the best night of my life. Believe me, it’s all downhill from Prom. I’m serious. I am in college spending time writing a letter to a high school newspaper. Listen to me. Please.

So on that fateful night, I was in the zone. You don’t even know. Me and my buds hit up the most romantic restaurant we had ever experienced. Seriously, there were candles, cloth napkins, and those nice glasses. I even pulled the chair back for my girl. I felt like I could do no wrong and well, I did no wrong.  

So after dinner, I took my girl in my Ford Taurus (5-star crash test rating), pulled up to Scheman, and danced the night away. Slow dance, fast dance, I did them all as though the ghost of Patrick Swayze had inhabited every cell of my being. Without a doubt, my favorite part of Prom was dancing to the cha-cha slide. It was the culmination of practicing the cha-cha slide in every dance since 7^th grade. It was then that I realized that all of my previous dances, along with my then 18 years of existence, were a preparation for this magical night. I danced that cha-cha slide the only way I knew how—from the heart. Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted. Would you capture it or let it slip? Well, not to brag or anything, but I captured it…and never looked back. Well, except for now, I guess and every day since.  

As the night neared a close, I realized it had to be indicative of the rest of the night-magical. I told the DJ to play my favorite song. Ten minutes later with “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith playing so auspiciously in the background, I grabbed my girl (literally), swayed to the music, and looked straight into her soul. At that moment I knew she’d be a part of me forever.

Still livin’ the dream,

Eric “Crankin’ that since 1988” Foley and Mukund “Yeah, I got a beard now.” Premkumar

 

P.S.: I hope to be at Prom this year and every year to come. You’ll see me there.

I've decided that it would have been clever if I titled my last journal entry, "Minority Report." Get it? Get it?? Get it???

So I've been reading livejournals for awhile, but I've never had any desire to post, until reading Foley's last entry.

    Foley and I are truly alienated minorities here. People actually think Jackass is one of the funniest movies ever. It almost seems as if most people from Ames High are alienated from the rest of the ISU population, not just Foley and I.  I was talking to Markus and Ben and both of them don't really like very many of the ISU students. At first glance, everybody is a frat boy about to get drunk. I think ISU was in the top 10 for Princeton Review's college with the most jocks. But, there is a minority, I'm sure of it. We just have to find them.

    On a related point, when applying for colleges I always got pumped when I saw that so and so college had a high percentage of minorities. Then I would tell myself that it would be so cool to meet people from all of these different backgrounds. In contrast, at ISU, it's not diverse at all. I haven't found any Indian-Americans. It's overwhelmingly comprised of white people from small Iowan farming towns. While talking with all of these people, I realized that I didn't want diversity. I wanted people like myself. I wanted people from middle to upper class society who are just like me, who enjoy the same sarcastic jokes, who enjoy the same things in general. But instead, here I am at ISU talking to someone about how awesome Thirsty Thursday is going to be. But also, here I am probably experiencing more diversity than I would had I gone to another college. Here I am meeting people from completely different backgrounds than me. It's an adventure.

And that was my first post.

P.S.: A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind is a very good book.