One much-mentioned caveat of social media is that it can be a place of illusion. It can be easy and tempting to present a false image of oneself, to only show the good and positive, and suppress the boring, the embarrassing, the ugly.
I like to think that I'm fairly "what you see is what you get" with my Facebook page. Sharing the oddities of life, and laughing about them when I can, is a pretty decent coping mechanism.
And so I'm bothered by some photos I posted last weekend. Prom night. I posted the obligatory photos of my kid, and his date, and their group of friends for the night. They looked smashing. So, you know, I was proud, they were happy, memories were made, end of story?
What the photos don't show is that Trevor DIDN'T GO TO PROM that night.
Here's the story.
He ran in a track meet at Drake University that afternoon. With enigmatic 93-degree April heat. His event was the 3200m (2 mile) run, which didn't go off until after 5pm. (Oh yes -- there are FB photos of that, too.) He had big plans to finally break under 10 minutes that day, which he wasn't able to do. And so, after the race, he was disappointed as well as under the gun to get home, showered, changed, and to prom photos. He was already missing dinner with the group at that very moment. He barely cooled down before grabbing his things (not to mention forgetting some of his clothes at the track), and bolted out of there.
After he showered and changed, he started feeling dizzy and sick. His date, Lilian, was texting him, asking if he'd be there soon, and he felt like throwing up. We put a bag of frozen peas on the back of his neck and asked if he could gut it out. He took a few minutes to try and pull himself together. And then we went to pictures.
We showed up roughly 25 minutes late to see that Lilian's entire family was there. Like, a dozen of them. Multi-generations of the Sanchez family armed with cameras. Camcorders rolling. I wanted to die.
After the photo session was over, Trevor said he just couldn't go to prom. He felt terrible. Literally. Lilian was super understanding and said she could get a ride with some of the other friends. And then Trevor came back home with us. And went to bed. During his senior prom.
He did wake up around midnight, feeling better, and I encouraged him to catch up with the group at the high school's after-prom party, which he did.
So, let's recap. He went to prom photos. He went to after-prom. But he didn't go to prom.
Did I mention I had turned down a work trip to Grand Cayman to make sure I was home for his senior prom night? Which turned out to be a very excellent decision. Because you don't want to miss the big moments. And it's even more important to be there when the big moments go awry.
So, a bit long for a photo caption, right?
