Senior prom is the night that many high school students imagine as the grand finale to their high school careers. Glorified by chick flicks, magazines and high school cliches alike, it has long been celebrated as “a night to remember.”

I do admit that it is a great feeling, especially as a girl: taking that gorgeous dress that you so carefully selected out of its garment bag and zipping it up, looking in the mirror and seeing that rare image of yourself with your makeup done and not a hair out of place. You giggle as you take the customary corsage and boutonniere picture with your date and rush to post it on Instagram before everyone else does too. You go to dinner in a flurry of excitement, reveling in this opportunity to splurge on an expensive meal. Then you finally show up at the venue of the prom itself, and as you feel the music pumping in your chest you think to yourself, “This is the moment I’ve been waiting four years for” (whether you admit it later on or not).

It’s a night to remember. But the truth of the matter is, it’s not all that it is glamorized to be.

Senior prom is honestly not much different from junior prom, save for your own change in age. But despite this fact, people are willing to put huge amounts of money and time into it simply because it has been so hyped up – not just for the last four years, but for the majority of their lives. Girls, myself included, spend hundreds of dollars on the perfect dress, the perfect shoes, the perfect clutch, and spend more on top of that to get their hair, nails and sometimes even makeup professionally done.

Not only is senior prom a huge financial cost, but it is surprisingly a huge source of anxiety throughout the second semester of the year, too. People feel pressured to find a date – any date – to go with, even if they did not care for last year’s prom.

A simple “Would you like to go to prom with me?” is not enough to win one, either. In this age of social media, guys must come up with Pinterest-esque, creative ways to surprise their dates with a “promposal” that is worthy of documenting on Twitter or Instagram.

Throughout the orchestrating of prom groups and plans for the evening, people’s feelings are often hurt: she’s not invited because she dated someone’s brother two years ago, and he can’t come because he doesn’t know enough people in the group and that’s awkward. To add to this, many couples go into promzilla mode, banning each other from wearing certain colors or accessorizing a certain way and arguing as they protest against each other’s rules. The point is, people stress about senior prom.

These are all examples that I experienced personally in the months before prom, and truthfully, I was guilty of a few of them as well. What I took away from the night itself, however, is that all of that time, effort and money was not worth it.

Yes, it was a great night and I had a lot of fun. Yes, I was happy with the way my date and I looked and the way our pictures turned out. But it honestly wasn’t the huge, life-changing night that it had been built up to be. It was a good time, but was it worth the hundreds of dollars I spent, the amount of time I spent freaking out about finding the perfect silver heels, the way I bullied my date into wearing a black tux instead of a gray suit? No, I wouldn’t say it was.

Ladies, prom dresses can be found for reasonable prices, like at websites such as renttherunway.com. If you’re crafty, making your own corsage and boutonniere can be a fun and affordable project, too. And if you can’t book an appointment to get your hair and nails done at a salon in time, don’t stress and just do it at home yourself, or find a friend to get ready with. Going to senior prom and feeling good about yourself that night does not have to come from spending a small fortune, or spending hours sitting in a salon chair.

Prom is not your wedding. Not every minute detail of the night has to be perfect, so don’t expect it to be and don’t obsess over the small mishaps that you can’t fix. Instead, focus on having a fun time and making memories with your friends. That, and not the $500 dress you argued with your mom all day about buying, is what will make prom a night to remember.