By Emily Mitchell

Prom: noun
a formal dance, especially one held by a high school or college class at the end of an academic year.

Prom is a time where juniors and seniors come together for one spectacular night.  It’s a night full of dancing, many pictures, games, and even breakfast.

Prom was a wonderful time. Being a junior, this was my first time actually attending prom although in Walnut, I went as a prom server my freshman and sophomore year. It was fun getting all glitzed up, buying a dress, getting my hair done, finding a date, taking a million pictures, going tanning, all to get ready for this one special night.

I started my day by getting my hair done at noon, make-up done around 2:30p.m. and waiting for my date to come at 4:30. After pictures with my parents, grandparents, hairdresser, friends, and my date, Steven Wright, there had been over 20 people in my little 1600 square foot house. Getting into a big truck is hard with a dress on but after a few tries, I got use to it.

Next, Steven and I headed to meet up with Juniors Sara King and Wyatt Saeugling. Wyatt and Sara had to take pictures together, and we also joined in on a few. Then, we drove around Atlantic and talked to friends before we headed over to the hospital for pre-prom.

The hospital was awful. It was fun talking to people and seeing everyone’s outfits but standing around for 1 1/2 hours in 4 inch heels is horrible. For food, there were cups full of crackers, popcorn, and pretzels. Punch was served for a drink. Yes the photographer was there and seniors took pictures, but it should honestly be cut down to 30 minutes tops. On the bright side, valet parking was wonderful. It was nice to just pull up to the door, get a number, and let them park your car. Then at the end, you would give them your number and they would get your car.

Grandmarch started at 8:45 and ended around 9:15. It’s very fun walking in front of everyone and showing off your self. The confusion was figuring out when to go, who to give the card to, and where to stop. Once you’re out on stage, it’s as bright as can be. You can barely see the crowd. All you can do is smile and hope not to trip in front of everyone. After grandmarch, it’s dancing time!

The dance, the moment everyone has been waiting for! To me, dances are fun if you know how to dance or have someone to dance with. Otherwise, you’re just standing or sitting there and watching. I like dances but it ran a little long. If they cut the dance down about an hour, it would’ve been better. That way, the kids could of went to after prom, cleaned up, and been done earlier, or there could of been an extra activity to fill the extra time.

After prom sounded like it would be fun. I personally had fun playing laser tag and poker all morning. The problem with laser tag was that you could be shot from behind the barriers. There was also a rock climbing wall outside the multipurpose building. I wanted to try climbing but it started sprinkling, and that just made it sound like a challenge. Some other things that were in after prom was ping pong tables, a pinball machine, casino games, and a punching bag machine.

With the chips people won during the casino night, you exchanged them for tickets, put your names on them, and put them in the bag of prizes you would like to win. I personally won a tanning kit and a big bottle of “Big Sexy” hair spray. It would’ve been cool if you won money from the games instead of tickets. That way, there could be an auction at the end and everyone would of had a fair shot at what they wanted.

Once that was over with, it was breakfast time. Breakfast consisted of pancakes, sausage, and fruit plus milk to drink. The pancake man, Ernie, would flip pancakes to random people who would like to try and catch them. Some succeeded while others failed.

The hypnotist was next on the list. I personally had fun with this because i volunteered to be hypnotized. What seemed like 20 minutes to me was 1 1/2 hours to everyone else. I heard many comments of how the show was funny and saw a few pictures and videos of the volunteers. It was a great time.

Overall, I had a great time at prom. From the dance, to breakfast, to even being hypnotized. It’s fun just spending time with your class and the class above! My recommendation would be to go to prom and enjoy every minute of it as much as you can. I did! I can’t wait till next years.