She slips into the dress that she spent weeks working saving up for. Her mother hands her the mascara while her older sister straightens her unruly hair. Her date is waiting for her downstairs; he is being interrogated by her father and younger brother. When her mother and sister are finished with her hair and makeup, she takes one more look of herself in the mirror and smiles. It is her prom night and nothing could be going better for her.

Or could it? Proms are one of the things that defines a person’s high school experience, but I ask why? Do those people who say that think that high school is only about staying in classes, fighting through mountains of work and losing sleep just to maintain a high GPA? Is prom the only thing that they look forward to in their entire high school life? The people who see school this way need to look around at all the fun things high school has to offer.

I used to be one of those people who went home as soon as school was over; I saw school as something to go through and finish so that I could move on in life. It went on like this for all of my freshman year and I was miserable. It was only when I became a part of robotics and law society as a sophomore that I saw the different things that high school has to offer. I eventually quit robotics but I remained faithful to the law society mock trial team. Since then, I have made many friends that I would have otherwise never made, and learned a lot of skills that I would have otherwise never learned.

I am ultimately saying that proms are not necessary to leave a lasting memory in a person’s mind. Many other things that could span over many years could be just as fulfilling or even more worthy than a single night of prom.