It is a truth universally acknowledge in Scotland that every good sixth year must have a sixth year formal in order to blow out that part of their life...the real truth is they want an excuse to get drunk and tell their teachers exactly what they think of them.

The Sixth Year Formal, Ball, Prom whatever you want to call it is an event that happens at the end of the sixth years final term at school, usually post leaving school in the May or June after your final exams in one of the local hotels in the area. Girls get dressed up to the nines, the boys likewise and this being one of the few occasions we'll get to see them in a kilt, you're allowed one glass of wine with your meal and then you're made to dance the night away...if you can't dance you're not as screwed as if you don't have anyone to dance with...before heading to wherever the after party is.

The dress for a sixth year girl is vitally important, even the bare mention of such a formal occasion sending us all scurrying out into the major cities looking for the perfect outfit. Most girls will also save from the end of fifth year in order to get the dress they want. Once the dress is purchased then the other plan that's been coming to mind since the start of sixth year is allowed to happen, waiting until the day or two before you make an appointment, you get your hair cut, dyed, dried, styled and made perfect for the day and this is all before going to get your makeup professionally done...

Or at least that's the girls whose only aim in life is to be perfect and beautiful for the men in our year. The more sane among us will go and spend a rather large amount on a dress because it's the only way to get a dress that will do for the occasion, and maybe you'll get your hair done, but that'll more likely be a bit of a trim, maybe a dye and then you'll deal with it yourself on the day. Makeup, sure, maybe you'll spend a day or some trying out different makeup, maybe even go as far as buying some new stuff, but have you honestly ever looked at a woman at a makeup counter? The last thing you want is to go to one of the biggest events in your young life with a perma-tan caused from the inches of foundation she's put on you.

For the men it's slightly easier, hire the kilt, shower, shave and leave after the minimum amount of effort you're out the door, maybe pick up your date, or more likely meet your mates for a bit of a laugh and a couple of stiff drinks to steady those nerves.

The real truth is that even the most undesirable person or person with the biggest, most self-deprecating personality has a right to fit in and feel special for that one night, so even if you say you don't know if you're going to go, and you do have a cry about things, in the back of your mind when you're at the shops you'll be looking at the dresses, you'll be thinking of the shoes that'll go with it and the underwear you'll have to buy to make your waist that bit smaller and your breasts that bit perkier. There's no escaping it.

And even if we do escape...we would regret it.

A good song to go along with the prospect of the Sixth Year Formal is 'There Goes the Fear' by the Doves, because it doesn't matter who you are in sixth year, there will always be something that scares you about that evening.

These fears are simple and as a testament to that, this is what I wrote in my Journal earlier this year about my fears:

'Today when the idea finally hits you that this is your last year at school and the last opportunity to make the best of your friends, it hits with a blow so strong that it almost knocks you off your feet.

The final blow that does knock you down onto your bum is when you sit down with two of your friends and they start talking about the "6th Year Formal" a subject you've been both loving and loathing.

An event you want to be proud to be part of, proud to be there and have fun, a final blow out before it all officially comes to an end.

Is your fear to do with not wanting to let go of the past, or not wanting to show people that anything that's happened over the past 6 years hasn't hurt, scarred or terminally humiliated you.

That this simply is you.

But then there's that fear again, in showing your true self, even if you never see these people again, do you really want to leave that final impression of you standing in the dress you've spent a lot of time and money obtaining, looking like a fool and feeling like one to match?

You tell your two friends, "I don't know if I'll go," causing an up roar that you're half expecting, but still surprised at, the thought going through your head a mixture of, "they really want me there, they care," and "they only want to see me make a fool of myself".

They tell you, "Don't be stupid, we'll all go shopping for dresses together and we can go together" this doesn't fill you with confidence. For one, these two girls are nearly stick insects, one of these girls has a boyfriend, who can't come because he left school at the beginning of 6th year and you can't bring outside dates, the other planning on asking some of the most popular guys in the school...and then there's you...the not so skinny 17 year old who's never had a boy look twice at her let alone had a boyfriend.

Deep down in your heart you want to go, secretly looking at the formal dresses when shopping, secretly thinking, "How can I make my bum look smaller?"...but deep down in your heart you end up crying, knowing that the guy you like isn't going to ask you, that the dress you like isn't going to fit you, or if it does it isn't going to suit you and you're going to end up exactly where you are now.'

The Sixth Year Formal isn't just a day, it's your lasting impression, the last thing you want to do is turn up wearing the wrong dress, or the same dress as someone else, falling over your kitten heels because you never did learn to walk in high heels or that you'll end up sitting on the sidelines wondering "where have my friends gone?"

The impression you want leave is this. That you are just you and that nothing that they can say or do will change that, you're as good or better than them and that the person standing in that formal attire is a great person.

If this is your last high school event...don't waste it.