So my senior prom is coming up sometime soon. To be honest I never paid much attention to know when is it, for all I know it was last night and I already missed it (okay, that’s a lie I at least know it hasn’t happened yet, mid-April or something).
I’m not going to because there doesn’t seem to be a point for me to go. For one I’ve never been to an optional dance since 5th grade(unoptional dances occured at summer camps, at which I paced around the room and never made social contact with anyone) so I don’t really know how to act at a dance (I can dance though… well at least various forms of slow dancing but as for modern “grind your pelvic bone into the other person” social dancing I have no clue). I also have noone to go with, and have approximately a 0% chance of finding someone. You see, as I said in the regrets thread I’ve never actually done anything outside of school with anyone since 7th grade, so I don’t exactly have a social network or anyone I can really default on (and obviously no girlfriend to speak of). Not to mention asking would be difficult because I have no clue if someone has a date already or even has a boyfriend so there’s a good chance I’d be asking people that have blatantly been going out with someone for the past 2 years and I never noticed. I guess I could chat with school friends at the dance instead, but I have a feeling they’re going to forget about me and focus on their dates approximately 18ns after entering the door.
But I’m not going to burden you guys with more random details about my life or circumstances you have no interest in, the question is quite simple. A bunch of adults have said they regret not going (to be honest I’m starting to wonder if they’re telling apocrophal stories or not because there seems to be an INCREDIBLY high volume of prom skippers), and a bunch of kids egging me on to go because of potential regrets. So I just need to ask, did anyone skip their prom and do you regret it? And, a further question given my circumstances above, do you suspect I’m doing the right thing skipping it? I doubt I’d have fun but there’s still time for me to read more stories and change my mind (to be honest my friends put me up to the “don’t take our word for it, ask other random people” thing so this isn’t a spur of the moment “lets randomly query the SDMB” issue).
I skipped my Senior Prom. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and had no reason to go. I really didn’t regret it. I really didn’t think too much about it until I realized that the girls who didn’t have dates and wanted to go would actually ask me out. I am not saying that you should skip your prom, but you could have a good time if you put a tux on hold just in case.
I never went. Admittedly, it’s only been 8 years, but so far I don’t regret it. As I recall, my mom didn’t go and she doesn’t care either. Why should you spend hours with a bunch of people you don’t know or like?
My current girlfriend didn’t go due to a recent breakup and wishes she hadn’t. It’s kinda a sensitive subject. If you want, I can try to point her in here.
Seriously, if you’re not into it enough to remember what day it’s on, you’re not going to miss it. I don’t feature you as someone whose high point in life was high school.
I went three out of four years, but I haven’t really thought about it until now. The only time I’ve seriously thought about high school since I left was when I ran into some person that was there two years before me, so we discussed overlapping friends. Otherwise, no, there’s no reason to ever remember high school, shit happens. It’s all practice for college, where you get to pick the personality you enjoyed being the most and develop it.
In the long run I doubt that you’ll regret not going. My school formal was over twenty five years ago. I went to it, but I can’t remember anything much about it now anyway.
I never went to my Senior prom. Went and saw Jason X instead with a friend. Now I really wish I had picked a better movie.
But the one thing that I DID do that was smart is that I went to the Afterprom party that the school hosted at a nearby location. THAT was worth it. It was def. fun- hung out played trivia games, free food and drink, poker, raffles (I ended up winning a TV that night), and other fun stuff like that. So I’m really glad I did that- but the actual dance thing, I never did and it was no big deal.
But if there’s an after-prom party- I’d say go do that even if you don’t know the people in your class that well, games are always still fun, and hey you might enjoy yourself more for it.
IMO, you sound like you already will regret not going, and you are just looking for posters to validate your attempts not to regret it. This is just my armchair psychology, so YMMV. FWIW, I went to my senior prom with a girl I didn’t like very much. I still had a great time, and I would have felt bad not going. Ritual and social standards are very key to my life. Maybe you’re different.
I never went to a prom and never regretted it. High school was a non-event for me. The only people I’ve ever personally known who regretted anything at all about high school were those who never went on to university or made something of their lives in general, people for whom high school was THE high point of their lives. To me, regretting something about high school would be as odd as regretting something about kindergarten or elementary school.
I went with a pretty much random girl, spent a bunch of money, and ended up having to leave after an hour because she sprained her ankle (swing dancing with someone else.)
I didn’t go and I’ve never regretted it. I wasn’t into dances either, but I did have a geeky social circle and I kinda regretted missing the anti-prom hanging out that happened that weekend.
I was going to Europe with an choir program the following June and we had a rehearsal on the weekend my HS had prom, so it worked out nicely that I could just skip the “go or not” drama.
I was the same way in high school. I didn’t really have any reason to go to prom but I was convinced that I would regret it if I skipped. Well prom came and went with me barely noticing, and to the surprise of my high school self, I don’t care.
I wasn’t planning on going to my senior prom (mostly because of a long story that involves me asking a girl that I was really close with to go with me, she saying she wasn’t sure she was going to go, then two days later her saying yes to another guy…okay maybe it’s not so long) but I did end up going because I was convinced by others I would regret it if I didn’t. I went with a girl I barely knew and had met a little over a month before the prom. I had fun with her and my friends. Turns out the girl fell head over heels for me via one night and had slightly stalkerish tendencies that continued for months to come even after I went to college. :dubious: Do I regret actually going? Nah. Does it hold a special place in my heart as one of the best high school experiences I had? Nope, not at all.
My advice: if your gut (and your gut alone, not anybody else’s) is saying you might regret it, go. And if you go, don’t go with somebody you just met.
I’d say don’t rule it out just yet. Someone may ask you to go with them yet. I seem to be quite a bit like you (never go to dances, not much of a social network, etc.) I was planning not to go to prom and not regret it. Then, out of the blue, one of my friends asked me to go with her. The way I see it is, I can do one of two things. I can not go, and sit at home that night, since all of my friends will be there. Or I can go. I might have the time of my life, or I might not. Odds are, it won’t be such a bad experience that I’ll look back and think: “Man, I should have just stayed home and surfed the web.”
That’s my situation. Your situation and mileage, of course, may vary.
Proms are dumb. High school, in general, is dumb. In ten, nay five years, you’ll have forgotten all about it.
I didn’t go to mine, and I’ve never regretted it.
If you’re not already hooked into the whole dance-date ritual thing, there’s no reason (and really, no authentic way) to insert yourself into that cycle now.
I didn’t go, and I don’t regret it. The thing is, though, that I had two reasons for not going: I had nobody to go with, and I hate social events, especially dances. This may not apply to you.
My husband didn’t go and doesn’t care. In fact, the first dance he ever went to was because I was going to be there, which was in college. And look what he got!
I went to my prom, and while it wasn’t a particularly spectacular night or anything, it was a bit strange and so that’s the part I remember. This is what I always think of when I remember my prom (well, that and the incredibly 80’s dress I wore):
We doubled with an exchange student friend and her date, whose girlfriend had refused to go with him in favor of going with her girlfriends in a group. When she discovered that he had a cute date, she got mad, he followed her around all evening, and we were a trio for the night. Ten years later, at my reunion, my prom date and the ex-exchange student were engaged to be married. I’ve always found that to be pretty amusing.
