Editor’s note: Senior Reem Negash is a writer for the Spotlight. She was crowned Queen of the 2014 prom and recounts her prom experience.

The week before prom is probably one of the most nervous weeks a person can go through, especially if said person happens to be the queen of procrastination and last minute planning.

I, of course, put off everything until the last possible minute on Friday from dress alterations to buying shoes to buying my actual prom ticket.

At one point I may have had assistant principal Matt Clodfelter yelling at me to go buy my ticket during sixth period. One would think that that alone would have been enough to jolt me into reality and go buy that ticket, but then again we are talking about me.

I, of course, proceeded to wait until eighth period to buy it after being threatened to have my computer logged off if I didn’t go that instant.

The hours leading up to Saturday night were hectic to say the least and took a while to get everything ready and in place. Once my group and I had finally settled down and made it to Dawson’s for dinner, things started to fall into place.

After a wonderful dinner filled with laughs, make-up touch ups and a few compliments from race goers, we were finally ready to go grab photos and head off towards downtown and the big night we had ahead of us. When walking into the venue one was met with a sea of dresses almost as colorful as a school of fish. Everyone looked so nice and it wasn’t hard to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

When it came round time to present the prom court and announce the winners, I could feel a knot building in my stomach, not so much over whether I would win or lose but more worry that I would probably trip if not cause a domino effect while up there.

As the prom princess and prince were announced promptly followed by prom king, I began to realize that “prom queen is next.” Then began the struggle to not look like I was debating whether or not to just hop off the stage and walk out. I was jolted out of my little mental tug of war when I just barely heard the DJ announce “And your 2014 Senior Prom Queen is Reem Negash!”

Following that one simple phrase I was met with a solid wave of deafening cheers. My mind immediately went blank and I had to pull myself together in order not to trip and completely fall on my face in front of all the flashing cameras.

After somehow managing to not high five the floor with my face or be blinded by all the flashes on the cameras, I started to head off the stage where my crown promptly decided to topple off of my head. So one might say I was more or less off to a rough start to my night.

After a few minor hiccups along the way I managed to get myself together. The rest of the night consisted of lots of laughs, photos, and some pretty neat dance moves if I do say so myself (although I have been told that that’s debatable).

I do have to say that prom night this year was undoubtedly one of my favorite memories of senior year. I fell in love with not only the venue, theme and decorations, but also the wonderful atmosphere the whole night that came with it. I definitely thought that the junior prom committee did an outstanding job and I would not hesitate to go through all the prom-related stress to replay that night just one more time (although maybe with a little less tripping over things).