High school rites of passage don’t seem to change much over the years. As it has been for generations, the prom is still a magical evening when seniors dress up, invite dates, gather friends, and make plans to mark their elegant entry into young adulthood. In keeping with its debutante origins in 18th Century Europe, prom today is still about nice suits, new dresses, mildly uncomfortable shoes, and maybe renting your first tuxedo. I’m obviously biased, but our young men are really handsome in their suits and ties! And the young ladies are beautiful, somehow knowing how to style their hair and wear long gowns in lovely spring colors. Fresh-faced, natural, and light is the trend of the time, and I think this generation knows as much about elegance as anyone ever did.

Springtime in DC means a Lincoln Memorial buzzing every weekend with the excited energy of high school students dressed for Prom. When we ride our scooters to the Mall in the evenings, it’s always a joyful scene of ladies and gentlemen flocked on the steps, wearing tuxes and gowns, and getting dropped off with their friends. They gather before Lincoln and pose in front of the Reflecting Pool with their arms around each other’s shoulders, and it’s the best time, really, to be a parent with a camera, because nobody is giving parents a second thought. On Jake’s and Eli’s prom night we are invisible in plain site, and the kids are only too happy to turn our way and smile. Maybe hoping to later see the glamour in the pictures, that they’re feeling in themselves tonight.

This weekend is the start of the whirwind; a whirlwind of regattas every Saturday, crew practice after school, graduation deadlines, senior projects, driving tractors, building fences, Chipotle, Memorial Day, the Eastern shore, final IB exams, college acceptances, grad parties, a last minute trip to the UK, and looking for summer jobs. Not the last summer or the last whirlwind, not the last of anything at all. More like, putting the final touches on the high school chapter, and taking these pictures to remember that high school in Arlington was pretty cool.