Did We Look Like This in 7th grade???

Kami just finished up a 5 week etiquette and dance class, with a finale being a formal dinner and dance at Southern Hills Country Club. Here are the 30 girls gorgeous young women and boys who participated.

Here is a little zoom in on Kami and three of her friends. I know I am biased towards these girls, but is their beauty not, well, um, outstanding if not a little disturbing? What happened to the "ugly duckling stage" that girls go through? Or was that a little story that my mom told me to make me feel better about my middle school years? (Similar to the story that cotton candy tasted like peanut butter?!! I believed that one for years!! I hated peanut butter so I never ate cotton candy)

See for yourself below the ugly duckling in 7th grade. I actually had to drag out this picture so I could verify my thoughts on how I looked in 7th grade. I wanted so badly to have Farrah Fawcettish hair, but it did not work out for me. Granted I was not dressed up in this pic, but I have some of those pictures too from 8th grade graduation, and believe me, it was not one of my proudest moments. The saving grace of this picture is that I had just started wearing contacts! You should see my 6th grade school picture with my big brownish plastic spectacles. I really loved those glasses. I'll spare you that picture for now. Back to Kami's event...

Here is Kami and her cousin James. My dad's brother's daughter's son, also a 7th grader and part of the cotillion.

I got to go take pictures of the kids as they arrived at the dinner and dance. This horrified Kami. And she was thrilled to see me walking my hiney out the door for the rest of the evening.

Kami and everyone we talked to had a wonderful time at the dinner and dance. They had to use all their table manners and other etiquette lessons throughout the evening. They danced using different dance steps and with different partners.

I don't know exactly what to think. Maybe every generation thinks the next one is "growing up way too fast." It just hard yet a blessing to see our 12 1/2 year old making such strides towards being a young woman. My prayer is that her inner beauty is what will shine... her love for God and others. And to answer the question posed in my post title, HECK NO!!!!