The Prom-iere

A night of dress-up, dancing, and a million photos. That’s what most people think of when they hear the word “prom.” AISG Prom 2018 happened last Saturday, the 19th of May from 6 pm to 9 pm, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Ballroom. It was attended by students from all 4 grades of high school and some faculty.

The event was advertised to start at 6 pm and that the doors would be closed at 6:30.  Then, the tradition of the senior walk in happened with some videos from seniors and teachers. This happened, but it seemed that many people were late to arrive at the event because of the extensive traffic in the city. Due to this, when the seniors were walking in, the audience or prom attendees seemed sparse and most tables weren’t full. This in no way is Pulse’s fault though because the event had to proceed as normal even if people were late because of the fact that it was only 3 hours long.

Following the entrance, everyone was seated and dinner was served. This is the first year in a few years that Prom has not been held at the Four Seasons, so many had opinions on the food provided, especially as the variety of it compared to last year.

Then, Prom King and Queen were crowned. The nominees for Prom Queen were Gwen F, Rusha S, Nina S, and Belle F. The nominees for Prom King were Karan V, Andrew R, Aakaash K, and Santiago Villar. Everyone voted for Prom King and Queen as they arrived at the event. The winners were Belle F and Andrew R. They did a short dance with Gwen F and Manogya C singing “A Thousand Years.” After a few minutes, other attendees and couples also started joining them on the dance floor.

From this point, it was essentially free time for everyone with people dispersing taking photos, eating food, dancing, and generally having a great time.

As with any social event, a lot of people have a lot of opinions, both positive and negative. Personally, I thought the event was smaller and the vibe was just not the same as last year; it just didn’t feel fun.  For example, the food was okay, but the options last year, for both dinner and dessert, were unequivocally better. Regardless of this, I felt like I had more fun this year; however, even though I might have enjoyed it, other people might not have. I interviewed some other prom attendees about their perspective.

Grace C, a freshman commented that she “had fun in prom, [but] because there weren’t many of [her] friends going, it made [her feel] a little awkward at times.” It has been established that many freshmen usually don’t go to prom for a variety of reasons – check out Anna K’s article about this here. The lack of freshmen going can also impact the few who do go, but nevertheless, they can still have fun. Grace claims that her ‘highlight’ of the night was “taking photos,” which is a largely agreed-upon statement.

Cheryl Z, another freshman, said, “prom was pretty interesting.” She added that “having the chance to see everyone dressed formally,” was good. Like Grace, she also “liked the great photos taken by the professional photographers,” but she mentioned that her “highlights were taking photos with seniors and friends.” However, she also acknowledges that her “lowlights were walking in with sneakers because I didn’t change yet and being awkward while waiting for my friends to appear.” Both freshmen who attended appeared to be very happy about their choice to attend. But, not all prom attendees were as positive as them.

An interviewee who wished to remain anonymous commented, “the food was awful and there was no variety. The samples were better than the actual desserts, [and on an unrelated note,] the music in Spanish was highly inappropriate, but the requests for English songs were denied, even if they weren’t explicit.” This is a true fact, but I would think this stems from the fact that most people don’t understand the songs in Spanish, and so only the ‘vibe’ or sound of the song matters. I can’t see any other reasonable explanation for why this would have occurred.

Though there were some issues, other students still agreed that “many things at prom were amazing: the decorations, food,” said Nelly L, a junior. She also admitted that “the music could’ve been better,” adding that “we (Pulse) will make sure we create an improved playlist for next year.” However, when asked about how she felt about Prom in comparison to last year she made it clear that “this year’s prom was worse than last year’s.” She stated that the reason for this was “this was the first time the new executives of Pulse were in charge of prom, and [they] did face some challenges. Although [she claims they] were able to get past them.” She continues: “I, personally, think that we could have chosen a better place in which to have the event, the one we used was way too big and did not have a “party factor” in it.” I have to disagree with this statement. I don’t think that the room used to host prom was too big, in fact, it was much smaller than last year. I simply felt like the ‘vibe’ was different this year and not as many people were dancing at all. Nelly actually agreed with this: “I noticed how there were only 10 people on the dancefloor whilst in last year’s no one was sitting at a table and everyone was dancing.” Overall though, Nelly says that “all Pulse members put effort into the planning of this event and had their best intentions when coming up with new ideas for Prom.”

In essence, it may seem like all we can ever do is find a reason to complain or something to pick at for any event. But, it seems like regardless of whatever short-comings, or perhaps improvements still exist, many people still enjoyed the event and had a lot of fun, which, in the end, is the main purpose of prom.