현재 세이헬로스쿨에서 가장 나이어린 선생님. 학교 다니실 때부터 경력을 쌓은 분이라 다방면에 경력이 있으며, ESL 스페니쉬 스피커 티이칭도 하셨고 현재 칼럼니스트로 활동하는 선생님께 우리 세이헬로스쿨 학생분들과 공유할 스토리를 부탁했습니다. 글 쓰는 것을 즐겨하시고, 책읽는 것 아주 좋아하는 분이기에...  청소년 학생분들한테는 공감이 되고, 성인 학생분들은 아련한 추억 떠올려 보시라고, 잔잔하게 졸업 프롬 얘기를 전해주는 에밀리 선생님 학교 때 얘기 올립니다 . 단어나 표현도 눈여겨 보십시요 ~

I had been looking forward to my senior prom for as long as I could remember. Sometime in middle school, rifling through a box of keepsakes my mother kept by the foot of her bed, I found a photo of her in a puffy peach dress, her hair curled down to her shoulders, two lilies circling her wrist. A banner above her head read “Northlake High Prom 1982.” She looked happy, almost glamorous, and I wanted nothing other than that moment for myself.

(magnet program : 특화된 프로그램을 가지고 학교 반경 외에서도 그 학교로 좋은 학생들을 끓어들이기 위한 프로그램으로, 학생을 끌어들이는것이 필요한 지역의  공립학교들에서 각각 특성에 맞는 마그네트 프로그램을 채택하고 있습니다.)

By the time my senior year rolled around, I had almost forgotten about prom all together. My last year in high school had been tough. I attended an international magnet program and was constantly busy, writing essays, churning out reports, and juggling activities. I was Editor-in-Chief of my school newspaper, co-founder of my school's literary magazine, and a cashier at a local children's clothing store. And to top it off, my boyfriend, who I'd been with since ninth grade, was already in college too many miles away. Prom had taken a back seat.

졸업반의 각종활동, 학교신문 편집장, 학교문학지 발간인, 옷가게 캐쉬어까지 소화하던 선생님은 남자친구도 먼저 대학에

가서 멀리 있었기에 프롬은 생각지도 않고 있었던 거죠... 그렇지만 절친한 친구인 엘리자베스의 우리들만의 프롬을 놓쳐서는 안된다는 부추김에 점점 프롬의 분위기로 빨려들어가게 되었나보네요.

제일 중요한 드레스 구입부터 머리며 신발 가방을 준비하던 것이 빼놓을 수 없이 중요한 과정이었고요. 프롬 본 파티보다는 전후 파티에서 친구들과 저녁먹은 것하며 파자마 입고 추었던 춤 등 선생님만의 아름다운 기억으로 수놓아져 있었나봐요.  엄마처럼 복숭아 빛 드레스가 아닌 검정 드레스를 입었던 에밀리의 프롬, 추억속의 그 프롬은 엄마의 프롬만큼이나 어쩌면 그 보다 더 좋은 것이었겠죠~ ~

위쪽중간예쁜분 

In early April, as signs began to go up around the campus announcing the year's prom theme (“An Escape to Paradise”), my best friend stopped me in my tracks: “We have to go!” She began rattling off things we needed to do – buy dresses, set hair appointments, get shoes and bags. I was overwhelmed, but her excitement was contagious. We didn't have dates (Elizabeth's boyfriend had also started college that year), but we decided we wouldn't miss out on the opportunity to go. I put my upcoming exams, the newspaper, the literary magazine on hold; I was going to enjoy the moment.

I spent a lot of time picking out a dress, fussing with my hair, deciding if I should go with the pink or silver wrap and before I knew it prom had arrived. The dance itself wasn't so memorable, mostly just  pop songs and punch, but I will never forget the dinner beforehand with friends at the fanciest restaurant in our small town where we felt grown up and beautiful or the party afterwards where we let down our hair and danced in our pajamas. It wasn't as glamorous as my mother's picture; it was better.

Now, five years later, digging through photos in the small flowered box I keep by my desk, I am thrilled to have my own keepsake moment, one that I remember more than any test I took or grade I received. My dress is black, not peach, but I look just as happy as my mom did in her photo, and on the back of the print, I wrote my own banner “Pensacola High Prom 2004.”