<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 17, a senior in a tiny Michigan town, and I thought my prom dreams were over before they began. I\u2019d spent months working at CVS and babysitting, stashing $312 in a red Folgers can for a clearance dress, heels, maybe even a curling wand.<\/p>\n
After my mom died, prom was more than a dance\u2014it was a chance to feel like life could shine again. But when my stepmom Linda used my savings to buy her daughter Hailey\u2019s gown, calling it \u201cfamily money,\u201d I was crushed. I told my date I wasn\u2019t going.<\/p>\n
Then prom morning came\u2014and so did Aunt Carla, my mom\u2019s sister, in her red SUV. She whisked me away for lattes, a salon visit, and a soft blue chiffon dress she\u2019d worn to her own spring formal. \u201cYour mom would\u2019ve lost her mind over this look,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
When we got home, Carla confronted Linda for stealing my money. My dad finally saw the truth and stood by me. That night, I went to prom with Alex, who brought a bracelet of tiny stars instead of flowers.<\/p>\n
Prom wasn\u2019t perfect, but it was mine\u2014and when I got home, a note waited on my mirror: \u201cYour mom would be proud. \u2014C.\u201d<\/em> That night, I finally found my sparkle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m 17, a senior in a tiny Michigan town, and I thought my prom dreams were over before they began. I\u2019d spent months working at CVS and babysitting, stashing $312 in a red Folgers can for a clearance dress, heels, maybe even a curling wand. After my mom died, prom was more than a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8353,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8351\/revisions\/8353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}