I Didn’t Go to Prom…It Was Cancelled

Seniors Are Told 2020 Prom Will Not Happen

I+Didnt+Go+to+Prom...It+Was+Cancelled

Isabella McAllister, Newspaper Editor-In-Chief

Prom is a part of the high school experience. You dream of buying your pretty dress and getting all dressed up with your friends. You imagine being able to surprise your senior boyfriend with your beautiful dress. You are so ready to make so many memories in one night. You picture having fun dancing the night away until your feet hurt. But then Corona smacks you in the face and you come back to reality. PROM IS CANCELLED…

2020 for me was already going to be such a bittersweet year. My boyfriend is a senior, he would be graduating soon and going off to college this summer. But I was extremely happy to be able to make so many last memories for both of us. From prom to graduation, and all the big events. But then we were all forced to stay home from school, and all those things have been cancelled or changed. For me, not being a senior, and missing this year’s prom wasn’t the end of the world. But for the seniors who never went to prom, my heart goes out to them. 

We spent our own money or our parents spent their own in order for us to make prom special. From the expensive dress, shoes, hair, and make up appointments, to that all just disappearing. I don’t get to walk out and show my boyfriend my pretty, sparkly prom dress to see his face, and I don’t get to see him all dressed up with a tie and combed hair. He doesn’t get to walk me outside to the car for us to drive to Dallas. He won’t be able to laugh with all of his friends on the ride there and dance in the goofy ways they do. He doesn’t get to do it…

A lot of people just do not care that the prom is cancelled. They think there are a lot more important things going on, and yeah, sure, there are plenty of things going on. But prom is just such a special thing for a senior to experience. Watching my boyfriend become sad about those things was heartbreaking. 

For me, I got a little glimpse of happiness when I was able to plan prom pictures to lighten the mood about prom being cancelled. I will be able to put on my dress and see him in nice clothes. While it will not be near the same, it is one good memory we will be able to look back on during this sad time. I know some people would say that prom and being sad of it is just not worth it. While that can be true, it is the memories that are being taken from all of us. Not that it is just a prom or the dress, but the things that we will remember forever. 

I just wanted to look back and be able to have those images in my head of that special night, and being able to celebrate my boyfriend. He never got to go to prom at all, and a lot of seniors in fact. It hurts me that they will never get that back, and they have to look back and this is what they remember. Face masks, gloves, isolation, at-home learning, and sadness. This is not how high school is supposed to be. It never was meant to be this way. 

My heart goes out to the seniors who spent their own money on things that are cancelled, and for them being robbed of their best year of high school. I wish with my own power I could do something. And for myself, I have to hold onto the hope that we can soon go back to normal. Me going into my senior year this next year, and not knowing if we will actually go back is deeply saddening. It is hard to hold on to hope when it doesn’t feel like anything will ever go back to our normal.