It has been pegged as the most supreme milestone in a young girl’s life: her sixteenth birthday. Many young girls dream about what it will be like to turn 16 along with it’s distinctive, traditional party. By influence of television shows such as “Sweet Sixteen” and “My Super Sweet 16”, girls imagine that their party will be just like what they see on those shows. Even though they are considered reality shows, they are not true reality indeed. Still young girls mold their sixteenth birthday around the outfit, the party and the gifts, in hopes of upholding what they have watched on television.
The outfit is the first thing everyone at the party will notice about you. On the show, you see girls in intricate pink dresses and tiaras with their make up done to perfection, so that is what you expect yourself to look like. However, mommy and daddy crush your fantasy when you tell them what you want to wear. They say it is absurd for a 16 year old to wear a tiara, so you settle for a sparkly head band instead. You may get the pink dress; however, it turns out to be a hand-me-down froufrou dress from your older cousin.
Then there is the make-up that is supposed to make you look like a goddess, but something about the LA Colors make up your mom bought from the Dollar Store does not make you look like the girls on television or a goddess. Instead you look like the regular sixteen year old girl that you look like every day. Even if your outfit is a disaster, the party is supposed to make up for it. You hope your parents will rent the most prestigious place in town and decorate the room to perfection. It is every girl’s dream for all her “friends” to be there, and everyone dances the night away to the newest, hip music.
However, that is not quite what happens. Instead, your parents rent nothing. They decorate the living room with party supplies from last year, and instead of all your “friends” showing up, roughly six of the thirty people you invited come; and of course your entire family will be there to embarrass you on your special day. The music is not even the newest, hip music because Grandma Faith disagrees. So, you and your friends spend the night dancing away to Mac Miller instead. You think the night of humiliation is over now, and the only thing left is the gifts.
This is the biggest, most important party of a girl’s sixteenth birthday. On the shows you see the girls getting new cars or new phones or money. However, you are just now sixteen, and Daddy is not putting his baby girl in a brand new death machine. You stare at each colorfully wrapped gift and begin to imagine all the goodies inside. You open each gift and soon find that what you imagined is not in those bags. When it is all over with, you end up with a gag gift, plenty of socks and underwear for years to come, some heart felt memorabilia from your mom and dad, and a homemade tee shirt from Grandma with your face on it.
You are scarred for life. The best day of your life is now the worst, and you think you can never face your friends again. However, your friends are still your friends and you soon forget the terrible sixteenth birthday that was supposed to be a pivoting point in your life. Comes to show that those television shows are not what they are made up to be, and you never watch them again. Even though the dress, the party and the gifts was a disaster, you are still alive and planning for next year’s birthday party.
