Ever since coming back from Christmas Break, the whole campus has been abuzz with anything and everything related to what some call the social event of the year: the President’s Ball (Prez Ball for short). My friends have been talking about going to Prez Ball all year, and it has only gotten worse the closer to Prez Ball we’ve gotten. Due to my adamant reluctance to do anything related to dances or dresses, the running joke is that there is now apparently a plot among my friends to kidnap and force me to go to Prez Ball. What they don’t seem to understand is that there are those of us who don’t find school dances magical, or even semi-exciting, for several reasons.
The first and most valid objection to not going to a school dance is the fact that there is dancing involved. Some people just can’t dance, or shouldn’t be seen dancing. I’m not a very good dancer, but the one area I do semi-decently in is hip hop. It’s very hard to do hip hop in a dress. Also, dances usually end up in a sweaty mass of people who didn't put on enough cologne/perfume (or too much) jumping up and down. That’s way too many people, too many sweaty people, and too many funny smells. Most people just end up looking awkward or weird at school dances because lets be honest, the average Joe really doesn’t know how to dance well to Hotline Bling while wearing a tux or fancy dress.
My second objection to school dances are dresses. Just because I’m a girl, that doesn’t mean I like dresses. More oft than not, I’m walking around Wheaton in a pair of sweatpants. They’re more comfortable, practical, and just all around better. Some girls go and spend insane amounts of money on one dress that they’re going to wear for one night, nine hours tops. If it was your wedding day, that’d be one story. But it’s just a school dance. Realistically, what are the chances of you wearing that dress again?
Unless you get invited somewhere super fancy or you reuse the dress for next year’s dance, I can’t think of any other reason why you’d wear that again. Forget the fact that the dresses themselves can be ridiculous, dress shopping itself can be literally painful. For those of us that go shopping only when we need something, and even then we go in with a set list of what we want and then we get out, walking into three, four, or five stores just to randomly wander for hours looking for a dress is not a joyful experience. In fact, it can be quite stressful depending on who you go with. I can’t even imagine the horror of going through hours of dress shopping just to walk out empty handed because I didn’t find “the one.” No thank you.
My third and final objection to school dances is the idea of school dances. These dances are portrayed as a magical event that will be one of your fondest memories looking back at your life. My fondest memories from the dances I had to go to in high school? Sitting around afterwards with my friends and hanging out. I don’t need to go to a dance to hang out and chat with my friends. It’s much cheaper to just rent a movie and stay home anyways. Dances are so built up in our society, that most any experience is bound to be a disappointment.
You watch movies as a kid where the dance is the peak of the movie: the main character has faced trials and tribulation, but that night is their night. They get together with their life long crush, destroy their arch nemesis, get crowned homecoming/prom queen/king, and manage to inspire the entire student body in the process. From that night on, life is perfect… News flash: Not how an actual school dance experience goes. Sure, we all realize that things like that don’t actually happen but somewhere deep inside of us is a naive little child that hopes the night will be perfect. And like I said before, school dances can be awkward.
I feel like these are super valid reasons to not go to Prez Ball this year. I mean, I could have just as much fun hanging out in my dorm. Even though I don’t really like dances, I think Prez Ball could still be fun. Every once in a while it is nice to dress up and the best part of getting dressed up is getting ready with your friends beforehand. Dresses are my least favorite thing to wear, but that doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally wear one. You can’t have those great pre-dance photos if someone is wearing jeans or sweatpants (my clothing of choice). Is dancing at dances awkward? Yes, so just embrace the awkward. Just let go for one night and go have fun. You can laugh at each other’s horrible dance moves and just have a blast being with each other. Are school dances overly hyped today? Yeah, but go make your own fairytale. The night doesn’t have to be perfect for it to be awesome. So I’ll see you at Prez Ball.
