Prom Night

Prom night. A night associated with lost virginities, underage drinking, and the expectation of having the best night of your life. Teenagers dress up, stress over finding dates, and do everything they can to have the perfect night. But, as so often happens when we place expectations that are too high onto an event, the reality is often much different than the fantasy. For me, this was most definitely the case. Fantasy and reality failed to even come close to being one and the same.

The fantasy: I would look absolutely beautiful. My date (my boyfriend at the time) would come pick me up and we’d take lots of pictures with all our friends. We’d get into the limo and head over to prom, where we’d sneak in booze, dance all night, and have an awesome time. After the event, we’d all head over to the hotel that we’d reserved a room at, drink some more, and eventually retreat to our rooms. I’d have awesome sex with my boyfriend, we’d go to sleep, and head home in the morning. Everything would be perfect, just like it always is in all those movies about high school.

The reality: I looked fucking awesome. My dress was hot pink and champagne, and my corsage matched perfectly. My hair looked wicked cool, and it’s the only time that I didn’t look awful as a blonde. I was supposed to go with my best guy friend, because my boyfriend and I had broken up a few weeks before prom. However, we got back together the week of prom, and he was angry that I wasn’t going to take him. I had to bail on my best friend, and he had to find a last minute date, in the form of a friend’s little sister.

We met for pictures with people that I’d rather not have gone to prom with, but I had at least one or two good friends there with me, so I was okay. We piled into the limo and headed for prom. I spent the first half of the night in the bathroom taking care of a puking friend. When I got back to the event, I danced a little bit with my boyfriend, and then I danced with My First for a bit. My boyfriend got angry at me for this, and insisted we leave IMMEDIATELY. He stormed off. We took a cab to our hotel, leaving our friends at prom.

Once back at the hotel, we changed clothes and began to drink. As my boyfriend got drunker, he got even angrier about the fact that I’d danced for 3 minutes with my ex-boyfriend. He threw my phone into the pool at some point. When our friends arrived back at the hotel, he was so angry that he wouldn’t let me hang out with them. I cried. A lot. He decided that he wanted to go home, and made me get in the car and we left. He yelled at me some more until I was sobbing, which annoyed him, since *I* was the one that had fucked up. He dropped me off at a gas station and drove off without me. And then, it started pouring. I borrowed a phone from a patron at the gas station, and called my mom to come pick me up.

Prom night sucked. It would have been so much better if I’d just gone with my friend.

So, dear readers, why am I sharing this long-benign, almost forgotten, entirely forgettable memory with you? Because, for better or worse, every teenager deserves the right to attend (or choose not to attend) their prom. It’s a rite of passage in many ways, and so often spoken about as crucial to the high school experience. Whether prom is the fairytale you imagine, a nightmare you wish you could forget, or a tradition that you choose to forego completely, it’s still something that everyone should be allowed, and entitled, to participate in. Whether you go with friends, your partner, your best friend, or a random date should have no bearing on whether you are allowed to attend your prom.

For one student, that right has been stripped of her by her school, all because of the sex of the date that she wishes to attend the event with. Constance McMillen is not only not allowed to attend prom with her girlfriend, but her school has decided that, in order to avoid discriminating against Constance, no one will be allowed to attend prom at all. They’ve canceled the prom for the entire school, all because one student wants to bring her same-sex partner to the event.

This is unfair. And so, fight for equal rights, fight for Constance and her girlfriend, and fight for all the students, all over the country, that want the same rights as all their classmates. Do it by writing about your own prom or by sending an email to the members of the Itawanba County School District. Speak out and speak up. And by doing so, you may even win a $100 gift card from Eden Fantasys! Making a difference and winning some dough for some sex toys? I don’t think you can beat that!