Bare Tummies and Awkward Dresses

One of my more awkward senior memories would probably be my senior formal photo shoot.  You've probably seen the photos of the guys in fake tuxes and the girls in fancy black dresses, staring dreamily off into the distance.  When I was a little kid, I always looked forward to the day I got my senior formal picture taken.  The beautiful senior girls in those photographs looked so elegant and grown up.  I remember always feeling a twinge of excitement about the moment I would get to wear the dress and look so lovely.

Up until the day before the actual photo shoot, I had no idea that the fancy dress wasn't even a dress.  It was actually a wrap.  Not even a wrap, really.  It was just a piece of black velvet cloth that draped loosely and awkwardly over the shoulders and hooked in the back with a tiny clasp.  The worst part about it was the fact that it came to just above the belly button.  If you weren't wearing an undershirt, then most of your stomach was exposed to everyone.  And if you were very modest, that could be a mortifying experience.  It made things worse that boys and girls waited together in the same room where the photos were taken.

A close friend of mine came over after the first day of the photo shoot, looking shaken.  My friend is very modest when it comes to what she wears- even more so than I am.  "Emily, you've got to bring an undershirt of some sort to the photo shoot," she warned me.  Apparently, my friend had showed up at the shoot on the first day while wearing a t-shirt, thinking that she'd get to change into a full-length dress later on.  She was wrong.

My poor friend had to shuffle into the room with a group of our classmates, trying to cover her bare stomach with her arms while hoping desperately that the tiny clasps wouldn't unhook and loosen the wrap entirely.  The worst part was having to pose with her shoulders back and her arms at her side so she wouldn't look unnatural and hunched over in the photograph.

Naturally, my friend was a bit embarrassed.

I took my senior formal picture the next day, so I was careful to bring a camisole and wear that underneath.  Even though I had on a layer beneath the ugly velvet wrap, I was embarrassed.  It's just an awkward feeling to walk into a room full of your classmates, their parents, a few teachers, and the photographer while wearing a little cami and an awkwardly-draped wrap.

The picture was taken, I shuffled back into the restroom and put a real shirt back on, and I vowed to never take another photo like that again.

I have to ask.  Why couldn't they have sacrificed a few more inches of material and made the "dress" come down to the waistband of our jeans instead of mid-stomach?  I would have been willing to pay the extra dollar or two in my fees and I'm sure my poor friend would have too.

Sometimes Christian schools confuse me.