Prom: The Expectation

Prom happens tonight. I'm going with two dates technically—Nathan, and the lovely Madison, whose ticket I bought so she could come! We're part of a group of eleven that also includes Emily and Shiloh. The excitement has been building pretty much for the past two weeks or so. It's gotten to the point where every other thing I say to either Emily or Madison is about how excited we are, and I even got all excited with Nathan the other day. The entire school has been thrumming with drama and expectation for practically the past month. In fact, most of the seniors and many of the juniors aren't in school today, for “Senior/Prom Skip Day.” The difference in the population of the hallways is staggering.

Anyway, our group, while traveling via limo (mostly for convenience—how else are 11 people going to get places in, as Em would say, a synchronized fashion?), has decided to go out to a relatively inexpensive and casual hamburger joint for dinner prior to the dance. The reasoning behind this varies, but it's mostly because all of us have limited funds, and because we all thought it would be good and be fun. Of course, since much of the school is of higher income in relation to our little group, we have been accused of being tacky. Partly, I think, because no one chooses this particular restaurant for prom night, though lots of people have chosen similar ones. I mentioned this to my mother yesterday when she was helping me with some last-minute arrangements, and she said something that changed my perspective on the entire night.

I was defending our choice of eatery with the same arguments I've been having to pull out and use for the past few weeks—it's not expensive, it's got good food, it'll be fun, and, above all, it'll be comfortable for everyone, whereas a more formal or expensive place would probably not be. My mother, agreeing with me, said, “Tacky? That's ridiculous. It's no like you're trying to play at being grown-up. You're going out with your friends for a night!”

Sometimes a quote or phrase someone says or writes will stick with me and make me think until I finally get tired of its buzzing and write something like this to shut it up, and what my mom said last night did exactly that. We're not playing at being grown-up or mature, or as wealthy adults out on the town. We are a group of high school kids going out for a night to have a good time. The burger joint will taste good, no one will have to worry about money, and, above all, it will be fun. Which is the point of prom, is it not? We're not going to pretend to be older, or to masquerade as people that we aren't. We're going to spend time with people who make us happy, and to have fun.

Somehow I think most of the students and many of the parents have lost sight of that.