Fifteenth Birthday

I always adapted things to my own ways, because I liked being creative and I did not like adapting to the ways of others, if they did not work for me. When I was in 8th grade, my close friends and I were feeling a little out of place with all the "quincianera' celebrations taking place that year because they were very extravagant, beginning with the dresses being very expensive and beyond our budget. We couldn't be the "damas" or maids in those celebrations, and some girls who were our friends ended up with "damas" they hardly knew, but who could afford the dresses.
When my 15th birthday came up, I didn't want to have strangers around me as maids..I wanted my friends and only my friends celebratng with me. Instead of choosing one color for the 14 girls to dress the same, I decided I wanted them to use whatever they had already making a variety of colors like a rainbow. I didn't care what they wore, but I cared that I would choose and have my closest friends around me celebrating together. Some of them didn't even have a celebration of their own, so this was their celebration too. It was simple but beautiful in our eyes, and that was what was important. None of my friends had to feel left out.
I did have one problem for a while, because my best friend and neighbor was only 10 years old and at that time maids were usually 14, or very close to 14 or 15. At first her mother said no, but I found a way to get past that. I invited her mother to be my "madrina" or godmother and then she felt compelled to say yes.
I still needed one more girl a couple of weeks before my birthday and my mother stopped to talk to a neighbor and she found the last girl because the lady had a granddaughter. At first, I was not too happy, because I hardly knew her since she was only 13, but it was ironic that we later became like sisters for the rest of our lives. In fact, I am still friends with about half of then now that I am old.
My fifteenth birthday was beautiful. My 14 maids walked in to the strains of music with me flollowing and then my godmother. I was so proud of my friends with their pastel promlike dresses of net or lace in pinks, blues, greens and violets--a pastel rainbow. After the solemn mass with all of us receiving communion, we went to my house where we had cake and chocolate and played games, laughed and played music and danced to rock and roll. My mother did not allow boys, but we had some fun anyway. My friends and myself were still not boy crazy yet...we were just starting to notice them!