August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April… and May, alas. Ever since the month of August, students everywhere have been waiting for summer break already, but on the first week of May, students prepare like they have never prepared before for prom night.
At Brownell Talbot, prom week isn’t only about the dance, prom week is about showing school spirit and showing out. Similar to other proms, we have dress-up days each week, Monday we go all out for “decades day,” Tuesday is the Country VS Country Club rivalry, Wednesday is anything but a backpack day, Thursday is all about sports teams and Friday is the House Olympics.
These games are tradition at our school and what set us apart from many other highschools. House Olympics is a day of games and competition, and most importantly, lip-syncing. Throughout the day, each house-color will represent their team by competing and winning points for the House Cup. This day always annually falls on the day before prom, giving students a day of excitement at school before their long night.
I believe House Olympics is what makes our school so unique and introduces a new form of student collaboration. The day always turns out memorable and warm, but by the time house Olympics come to an end for the day, prom is the only thing racing through students’ minds throughout the day. The upcoming night floods everyone with anticipation and anxiety, getting the perfect dress, having your hair look perfect, the list goes on, but imagine going to prom at our school, and seeing the room filled with all grade levels. Unusual or not, our school has anyways included Freshmen and Sophmores at our prom simply because the size of our highschool is too small to host prom for only two grade levels, therefore, we have always been going to prom with freshmen and sophmores.
There hasn’t been a single time where I’ve told another that at our prom, freshmen and sophmores are invited each year, where someone isn’t jaw-dropped. Going to a prom where underclassmen typically don’t get invited, are there, is probably a weird expirience for many of the new students in highschool, but the idea tends to grow on people.
As well as underclassmen having the opportunity to go to prom, the upperclassmen have their own dinner tradition. Each year, the seniors will write a heart-felt poem to a junior of their choice with words of encouragement and hope for their future, ensuring them good luck for their senior year to come. Our school is privledged enough to be able to continue on with this on-going tradition because of our class size. Over the years, this tradition has gotten a lot of mixed feelings about whether it’s ‘necessary,’ and what I’ve always thought is that this is another one of those unique traditions BT has, that makes it, BT.
Ultimately, my favorite part of our prom will always be the fact that it’s at a wedding venue. Our school’s gym isn’t big enough to hold everyone who goes to prom in one space, so ever since I could remember prom at Brownell Talbot, it has always been at A View On State. We get the privledge to rent out a venue for our prom, and that venue is also where the upperclassmen attend to their pre-prom dinner and poems.
