Many high schoolers look forward to prom for years. After all, what could be better than getting all dolled up with your friends in dresses and tuxes, posing for photos with the date you’d been crushing on for months, and dancing the night away?
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When prom finally arrived for Chicago senior Jackson Loop, things didn’t go the way he imagined, but his story has the happiest ending.
Jackson’s prom story started out like most others. He and his friends, along with their dates, decided to get dressed up and meet at someone’s house to take all those cheesy photos parents love.
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But then he got a text saying that plans had changed. His friends no longer wanted to take photos and would instead just pick him up before the dance. So he waited. And waited, and waited, and waited until 6:00 p.m. Sadly, however, his friends never showed up. According to Jackson’s mom, Sheila, things only got worse from there. By that point, his friends had stopped answering his calls and texts completely.
“His younger brother and sister and I watched him as he started to realize that he had been ditched,” Sheila explained. “I have to tell you that in my 18 years of parenting, I have never felt so much pain.”
Facebook
To make matters worse, Jackson then logged onto Facebook and found out that the group had, in fact, taken group photos together. They just didn’t want him there.
The entire thing had Jackson feeling completely heartbroken. “He had all but collapsed in the kitchen,” Sheila said.
The teen had often felt like an outcast, but he thought he could make this group work. In his words, “I kind of showed them how to treat me. Like, ‘They can do whatever they want, I’m all right. I can be in the back.’ But I never really liked it. … It really hurts me when it’s almost every time that I’m just in the back, tagging along, and barely anyone is talking to me.â€
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A few days after the devastating prom night, Jackson was invited over to a different friend’s house. He thought they were just going to hang out, but when he arrived, he saw a whole group of students from the junior class dressed up in dresses and suits. They shouted, “Happy fake prom!” Needless to say, Jackson was stunned.
Yahoo
After that, he was shuffled off to change into his suit. “I’m in the bathroom changing and I kind of shed a tear a little bit because no one has ever done this for me,” he said. At the end of the day, he got to have a great time and he learned some valuable lessons about relationships.
Yahoo
“You may feel like you belong in a place and you’re in a great group of friends, but make sure that they’re taking care of you as well,”he said. He went on to point out that even when we feel alone, it’s important to realize that there are billions of people in the world. Even if you don’t feel like we’re part of a group now, you’ll eventually meet people who welcome you with open arms into their lives.
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Wise words, Jackson.
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