Letting Go of a Prom Dress

Let me start off by saying that I went to prom exactly EIGHT years ago, and for some god forsaken reason, I've held on to the dress all of these years. I don't think it's because I thought I would ever wear it again, but there's something about the symbolic meaning of the dress, that it was hard to let go. Prom is the pinnacle of your high school career and, to me, this dress represents four years of hard work, social development and the hardest emotional times of my life.

I've let years pass me by, occasionally coming in contact with it when it wasn't kept in storage. Every year I would come up with the same excuse to not let it go: "Oh, I'll sell it eventually." Now, I officially have the dress up on Facebook Marketplace, hoping for a young teen to stumble across the listing while hunting for that perfect prom dress. It's in no means in perfect shape—several sections of beading have fallen off from dancing at prom or the ruckus that followed in the party bus. Other than that, mint condition.

I've finally decided to post a listing and in a sense, let go of the negativity that accompanied high school. With it, I'll set free any old grudges, past relationships and emotionally traumatic memories. I'm cleaning the slate and only holding on to the memories that serve me and bring positivity into my heart. I don't know why it took me so long to do this, but the feeling is liberating.