I didn't see any open threads about prom, so yeah... if there is an open, close this then.

Starting Monday, prom tickets are being sold in my school for $50, and several people have asked me if I'm going. I've been wondering. Is prom worth going to? I mean, I see prom as a formal dance where students go to have a good time, and it's supposed to make their junior or senior year special. They go with their friends or loved ones, and they basically dance and have fun.

Honestly, I don't feel like going. Firstly, I can spend $50 on things I'd actually enjoy than a dance. Then, I'd actually have to spend money on a dress I'll only wear once and then never wear again. I don't even know who I would even go with cuz my friends are either going with their other friends I don't even interact with or with their bf / gf, and I even have a friend who refuses to go unless she's guaranteed the physical act of love in the end. Also, I've never even been to a school dance and never wished I had gone to one either. 

Am I really going to miss anything if I don't go to prom? Would you go to prom? Have you been to prom even? Was that a good experience or no?

Do you like dances, to dance, or can be with your friends? If so, go.

If not, don't.

xxAriaxx : Only normies go to Prom. If you want to stay a non-normie then don't go to prom. Plus 50 dollars? That's a lot of money for something you may or may not enjoy. It seems like kind of a gamble to me. 

From what I understood from friends who went to prom, it's only worth going to if you are getting laid. And even then, you might just be able to get laid without spending money on going to prom, and having a fun date night.

Otherwise, it just seems like a waste of money. I never went, and don't regret it in the slightest.

I'm with Maguc on this one. If you don't see the value or the fun of the experience, don't go. And, no, not just 'normies' go to prom. Almost everyone does. I went, I had a fun time because we danced and I hung out with my friends, we got dressed up, it was a good time. We played at being all adult and having a fancy dinner, etc.

You sound like you're just talking yourself out of it anyway and you don't have interest.

If you don't think it will be fun, don't go. Are you going to regret not going to prom the rest of your life? No.

But, you can also have a takeaway here. I do everything anyone invites me to do. I think it's fun to try new experiences I'm not used to so I can see what the fuss is about. It's being open-minded and it's teaching me to try everything.

I say you go. Go, have fun, and if you don't, oh well. At least you tried and didn't just stay in your bedroom and watch tv. You went and tried to do something new. You may kick yourself down the road for not trying something new and hiding and not going is always easier.

Challenge yourself. Spend the 50 bucks, go, see what the fuss is about.

No.

That really depends on you. It is like they say when you get your final yearbook,you will look back at it every once in a while. So,if you want that memory,go to the dance. If not,do not worry about it. I look at it this way,it is a way to say goodbye to the year or school. Yes,it is a money grab of sorts. And then you have to worry about someone spiking the punch,someone bringing in their own booze,someone trying to pull moves on you,etc.

I did not go to my senior prom,I hated school and everyone in it. I do not regret not going. But,I was a fairly hateful person at the time. (Some might say I am still a hateful person. Maybe that is why I got the Red Lantern ring in the lantern quiz,hahaha.) It all depends on you,and no one said you cannot show up alone.

This is something I really cannot answer for you. This is something you have to decide for yourself.

I have to agree with Oldschool.

Prom is just a cash grab.
Not to mention it is some stupid old school tradition that people don't let die already.

I didn't t go to prom and all my friends that did complained about how much they spent on it. *smh*

xxAriaxx : it all depends on what you want to do while I never went to a prom before I graduated there are other people that go and have a great time dancing and socializing with their friends it,s just something you will have to decide for yourself but I would not spend $50.00 unless you really want to go otherwise you might find it to be a waste of money if you end up going and not enjoying yourself

xxAriaxx : Well for one, I'm a home-schooled Junior so my perception on the case may be a little different than other people with public school experience. But besides that, I think it somewhat depends on what type of person you are. If you know how to make a boring or pointless situation into something fun for yourself then I think you should take advantage of any benefit you might gain from going to prom. Otherwise, I wouldn't go, it's like playing a game or watching a movie without the a trailer; you're really not losing anything by not playing that particular game or watching that particular movie (my apologize if I gave a bad example, which I feel I did but hopefully you get the point ).
It's your decision after all plus "What do I know? I'm just a 16 year old kid with Steeler Gloves as his profile picture."
Anyways, "Trust Your Gut" .
(I may have plagiarized those last two statements...)

I'm a junior this year so people are wondering if I'll go to prom as well. I agree with Ghostbear because you never know how fun it will be until you try it. People will tell you their experience but experience is different for everybody.

If your friends are going, even if they're going with other friends of theirs you don't know, you can still try to interact with them a little and maybe even make friends with their friends in the process. I have many friends who interact with other friends most of the times I'm around them, but they welcome me into their group despite my awkwardness. Maybe it's because I got so crazy and I say funny jokes out of nowhere

But in all seriousness, I recommend trying it out. Unless your school enforces it, you don't have to stay the whole time. For the first time, I tried out my school's homecoming dance this year. Even though the dance itself was terrible, I still enjoyed it because my best friend was there with me and I was able to interact with him the whole time. He had other friends there but I stayed with him the whole time and still talked to him. Also, the other friends I had there that were in big groups took time at the end of the dance to leave their groups and see how I was doing.

I've learned that since a few of my friends are popular (the good kind of popular), group conversations will have to be part of my life. They can be annoying and hard, but as long as I'm not afraid to interrupt once in a while, it goes fine.

I can see the appeal of prom, but I was never really interested, in most school dances. In addition to the cost, there's the time and prep to look nice, people buying/renting dresses and suits. Sure, you only have one prom, and it might be the last time you see some people. So, if all that appeals to you, I'm sure you'll have fun.

It didn't interest me, so me and all my friends didn't go either. We're still friends too. I don't regret it.

Heh, funny, kind of related story. I was in the park, hanging with my family, when I met an old friend of mine. He asked me if I was here for the high school reunion, which I didn't even know was happening, I just happened to be in the place, at around the time it was going to happen, by coincidence. XD  It was pretty awesome... But I still didn't go. XD

I went, and I can honestly say it was one of the best nights of my life. I went with a couple of friends (one of which had rented a limo), and stayed up until 5 am lol. 

F. Starr : See, the part you say "In addition to the cost, there's the time and prep to look nice, people buying/renting dresses and suits."

Half of the fun is taking the time and making the effort to get dressed up, look all fancy, and have fun showing off for others. I remember, 17 years ago, enjoying getting a Mercury Cougar to drive and showing up and seeing my girlfriend (now wife) looking extra-super pretty. And I was all gussied up in a nice tux, looking fantastic, and we enjoyed the process of preparing for the night.

But, obviously, it's not for everyone and that's fine.

I still think Prom, even if it doesn't sound like "The Best Time Ever," should still be on your radar, Aria. It's not like you're skipping a sporting event and you can again next week, or you're passing on a concert because that group or person tours once a year or every other year. You may not regret it down the road by why not go experience something that only ever happens once?

Ghostbear1111 :   I didn't mean it in a negative way. It's that's what people want to do, sure.   It's just not for me.I'm very practical, most times. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind money as a gift. Some people get offended because they think the person wasn't really trying. You know what you can get with money? The things you want. I'd rather have someone give me money, than risk them giving me something I'd have little use for. XD

It definitely sounds like you made up your mind about this long before posting this thread. To be so against the idea of anything important happening at a dance will pretty much guarantee that nothing will happen. Will you miss something monumental? No, of course not. The whole point of the event is simply for the enjoyment of the students. But it sounds like there will hardly be an outcome that makes this event "worth" for you, so you probably shouldn't go. But the fact that you went out of your way to post this still shows some kind of ambivalence. Are you actually trying to figure out if you will enjoy it or do you think you "have" to go? 

In my case, I bought into the idea that school dances were special events and I almost always participated, ever since since 7th grade. Just like with anything else in life, it's not necessarily the event itself, but the people who will be there that make it worth going to. I never had a date to anything. I'm more of an observer type by default, but I always just enjoyed the atmosphere and being around my friends. 

Senior Prom for us was pretty impressive. The room at the local hotel was pretty decked out and the food was pretty good. Truly like one of those glamorized Proms on TV, at least I thought so, anyway. I just kind of hung out, but it was still enjoyable. Also had to go to the stage at one point since I was somehow Runner-Up for Prom King lol.

Anyway, it's a landmark as far as your senior year and one of the last moments to spend with those classmates. But nothing monumental will happen by default. You can't really "miss" anything. If you don't enjoy that type of scene you shouldn't feel obligated by some social standard about Prom Night to attend. But don't bring the money into it when making your ultimate decision. You can get $50 any time. But this is the only time you'll be able to get a Prom ticket. (On a completely unrelated note, that's why I find myself pre-ordering so many special edition video game sets lol. Especially with scalpers you'll never see the contents of that set again unless you pre-order. Sorry for mini-rant here, just pre-ordered a lot of stuff this month.)

I did attend my prom and I thought it was worth it, but as many people have already mentioned, attending the prom is something that's only enjoyable if you like what happens there, and every prom is different. I remember one of my friends saying they disliked the theme for their prom, so they ended up not liking it at all. For me though, our prom was awesome because we chose a good and fun theme, and that might have made all the difference.

Yuna1000 : We're waiting with baited breath. What was the theme of your dance?

Me? I don't even remember a theme. I just remember eating dinner with my friends and my girlfriend while being in fancy-dress with a tuxedo. My gf was leasing a Mercury Cougar so I got to drive that to Prom and show up with a nice car. We didn't rent a limo or anything. And we had food that was fine and then we danced and had fun for a few hours with friends.

The theme, the music, the venue, all of that go into making those memories of when you were in high school. I drive by the place where we had prom and I smile at it because it was an experience. Even if it isn't a perfect experience and it doesn't live up to expectations, you went.

I'm a fan, as I said before, of going to everything and doing everything. Those are unique experiences and even if they don't turn out the greatest, at least you went and tried them. If you turn down prom, you might turn down the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.

Then you end up being like some of my former friends who skip everything. They sit at home, look at a computer screen all day, go to work, go home and look at a computer screen, and never try anything new. They never go outside, they never go to anything exciting, like sporting events or concerts or events, and they end up not being friends since they don't do things.

That's what you should think about in all this, Aria. Go because Life is all about new and different experiences, whether they were perfect or not. Sometimes the imperfect experiences are better and make for hilarious stories.

I'm not going.

A week after I made this thread was the sale of the prom tickets. I already knew it wasn't worth it:

1) more than half of my friends are underclassmen, so they wouldn't be able to go, and I would only be able to invite only one of them
2) my friends who are in my grade are going with their other friends, and those people are those I really don't like
3) any remaining friends I have are like "oh, I only want to go to prom if I'm going to get f***ed in the end" which is a much worse excuse on why they won't go to prom than mine 

Also, my best friend said he wasn't going and he said there were better ways to spend $50 than to a dance. Of course, two weeks later, I found out from another person that this girl he is friends with spent $100 on prom tickets, one for her and one for my friend, so he now has to go. 

I already know I'm not going to regret it. I never went to a school dance, and not once did I wish I could have went to them. Could I have given them a chance? I could have, but I could have possibly had fun with them. But there are so many things that sound like something I wouldn't do. This past weekend, I almost went against going to the cast party for the musical all because it was hosted by the one person I hate, and I was never into parties. I still went cuz my friends were going, and I ended up having a great time. At the same time though, if I hadn't went, I wouldn't really regret going. 

And a bonus, I'm going to an anime convention on the night of prom, and I know I'll enjoy myself that night. I will have the same amount of fun as almost everyone who will be in prom that night. 

xxAriaxx : Anime convention definitely sounds worth, though I wouldn't have thought so at the time of my Prom. I had a decent intro to the world of anime last year lol.

I also wanted to mention that you reminded me of another senior event (that may or may not be common for everyone): Senior Award Night. I was even slated to get an award, but we actually went to Star Wars in Concert that night instead. Most of my friends were actually at the ceremony and were surprised I didn't go, but I definitely think it was more worth to go to the concert. I still have a 3-D poster from that event, but I don't even remember what award I "won."