There’s something about the word homecoming that instantly transports me back to 2005 – a time of flip phones, Myspace Top 8 drama and when your biggest fashion decision was whether to wear your hair half-up with too much glitter hairspray or just let it do whatever it wanted because humidity was undefeated.

But now? Now, homecoming is a production.

This year marks Emerson’s first homecoming, and y’all.. I am not prepared. I thought I was ready for the dress shopping (see previous column on that one), the excitement, the photos, the corsages. What I wasn’t ready for was the fact that apparently, corsages are “cheugy” (I learned that word last year – it means out of style, for those of us born before the iPhone).

When I was in high school, homecoming meant a semi-formal dress from Dillard’s clearance rack, a white corsage that would wilt halfway through the dance and maybe dinner at Chili’s with the whole friend group. If you were really fancy, you got the triple chocolate molten cake to share.

Now, it’s a full-blown event season. There are professional “HOCO proposal” videos, salon appointments for nails, lashes, tans, hair and dresses that require a full engineering degree to figure out how to zip, lace, or tape into place.

But the thing is, I love it. I love that these girls get to celebrate, express themselves and go all out. I love that they get to take pictures with ring lights instead of the flash on the digital camera photos that made everyone look like a ghost in the night. I love that homecoming has turned into a moment – something they’ll remember forever.

Still, I can’t help but chuckle at how much it’s changed. In 2005, our version of a “proposal” was someone’s friend awkwardly asking if you were “going with anyone yet.” Dresses were strapless (and we prayed they’d stay up), boys wore wrinkled shirts from Belk, and if you were lucky, your mom took a few blurry pictures in the front yard before you ran off.

Now I’m the mom taking the pictures, fixing Emerson’s hair, bribing her to smile just once with her teeth and reminding myself that this is her time, not mine.

Even though the styles have changed and the expectations are higher, the heart of homecoming is still the same. It’s about feeling special, celebrating youth and making memories with your friends before the real world starts calling.

So while I might miss the simplicity of 2005, I can’t help but smile as I watch Emerson get ready for her first big dance because no matter how much changes, some things stay the same: nervous excitement, too much perfume and a mom trying not to cry behind the camera.

Because this time, I’m not the one going to the dance – I’m the one letting go, one homecoming at a time. I only get seven by the way. Well, actually… 21 (seven for each girl), but I will be sure to make every single one special!

(Paige Gurgainers is a mom of three girls, digital journalist for Webster Parish Journal.)