The summer of my seventeenth birthday I was invited to attend my best friend’s older sister’s wedding. My friend was named Rudy, and oddly enough he was the younger brother of the guy who had been my boyfriend the year before. I was a senior, Rudy was a freshman and for some reason we just really hit it off as friends and continued to be best friends for a couple of years–an entirely platonic friendship. Some of my best times in high school were with Rudy, and hopefully the same was true for him of the time he spent with me.

When he invited me to attend his sister’s wedding and reception, I was very excited: they were a very large Mexican-American Catholic family and the reception promised to be one of those big, noisy, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” type receptions. There was a snag, however. I needed a somewhat formal dress to wear, but I didn’t have any extra money at the time to buy one. Without a new dress, I felt I could not attend the wedding.

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