Prom Court 2022: Justine Estrada is ready for her crown

Few at Colton High School have as big a smile as Justine Estrada, and even fewer offer theirs so easily. This Prom Queen nominee is overjoyed to be part of this year’s prom court, an experience she describes as “surreal” and “crazy.”

But, it is also an experience she has been wanting for quite some time.

“Since Freshman year I told my mom, like, ‘I want to do prom,’” Estrada said. “It’s such a good, fun experience, and she’s like ‘Go ahead, do it!’ And so when I got nominated, I was like ‘heck yeah, dude!’”

The attention has made her especially happy these past few weeks as she has missed school recovering from knee surgery that was the result of a soccer injury. “I don’t think I’ll get any votes because of my knee,” she said. “But I’ll take ‘em, I’m not gonna lie.”

This is Justine, a good natured young lady, whose easy smile is usually followed by a joke.

It’s her nature that has brought her to where she is now, 18 and ready to seize the world. She has already been accepted to Arizona State University, where she will follow in the footsteps of her brother and sister as a Sun Devil. While there, she plans on majoring in kinesiology with the goal of becoming a physical or occupational therapist in order to work with children.

Her current path was inspired by Sports Medicine teacher, Meg Kelley. “Honestly, in the beginning, when it was all ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’ I wanted to be a cardiologist. But Ms. Meg—I’m in her sports med class—she really changed my mind and my thoughts about how the anatomy and everything in the body works. And I fell in love with the orthopedic. It just caught my eye. You’re basically giving a human another chance, like helping them walk again. You’re giving them that other chance, and they’ll think about you later and think ‘wow, that doctor really helped.’”

While the future is exciting, as she nears the end of her senior year, Justine finds herself nostalgic. Her best memories include competing with her teammates on the soccer and volleyball teams, but she loved going to football games. “Football games were everything,” she said. “The Friday night lights, I’ll miss those. I feel like they went away so fast. Just being in the student section with your friends and going crazy whenever we scored a touchdown. That’s everything.”

She still has prom to look forward to as the senior activities come fast and furious during this final lap of the year. And, if she doesn’t cast a vote for herself, she is most certainly putting one in for Marissa Herrera, her volleyball teammate. “The way she carries herself . . . everything about her is amazing,”

Regardless of whom she votes for, she wants everyone else’s. It’s impossible to see this as anything other than pure joy, that joy which animates everything about her, because for Justine Estrada, the experience of being crowned “Prom Queen” is really all about “getting respect. Being on top. Just being able to have that title is something crazy.”