A sparkly blue dress shines under the lights, and my brown locks fall in perfect elegant curls on my shoulders. I dance the night away while stealing the hearts of all the boys with the modern jive, and then my date, the cutest boy in school, sneaks me away for the romantic ballroom waltz.

Ever since I was a little girl, this is how I dreamt school dances would be. Now that Counties is a short year away, I can’t help but wonder if my fantasy of high school dances is the reality at Staples.

I have been told the good, the bad, and the ugly about the prep and primp for Counties. Sitting long hours in the beauty parlor chair watching the hair stylist form perfect curls, while the smell of product lingers in the air. How pleasant. And the makeup process, oh boy. The artists throwing everything onto your skin so it feels five pounds heavier, but always beautiful.

While I had always imagined dances to be relaxing and stress-free, recently I have heard that months before the hair and makeup process even begin, the minds of junior girls bubble with the fear and anxiety of mainly two things: rejection, of course, but also the tedium of trying on thousands of dresses, different styles, cuts and colors.

How do they decide? Beats me.

I think I’ll have to accept that preparation for Counties is anything but stress-free: picking the perfect date, the beautiful, bedazzled dress, and the glorified, wild and never-ending after party. During what is notoriously the most stressful year of high school, all this planning and extra stress piled onto junior girls just for a dance…I can’t help but wonder if it’s really worth it.

For now, I’ll cherish the days as a sophomore, the days before the frantic and stressful life of a junior girl going through the vigorous Counties process. And if it’s not what it’s cracked up to be, I’ll always have my prom fantasy.