I didn’t go to my prom and have no regrets about not going.
I even considered not going to my high school graduation but since my parents and relatives went, I figured I’d better be there too.
I did not attend my college graduation and have no regrets about that either.
Didn’t go. No regrets, now or then.
I had no girlfriend at the time and no real interest in going to a formal dance. My mom, OTOH, had a traditional rural US upbringing in which the Senior Prom was one of the defining moments of a person’s life, and was upset about my lack of interest. She tried to set me up with the daughter of one of her co-workers, but we didn’t really hit it off.
I think mom still has a soft spot for the girl I dated in college who finally got me into a tuxedo.
After fifteen years, I have lots of nostalgic feelings for college life and the people I knew on campus. High school, on the other hand, was left behind the moment the final bell rang. I don’t think I’ve seen any of my old classmates since graduation week. I didn’t hate it (I had the typical overwrought teen angst, but had mellowed by senior year), but as a social experience it left little impression on me.
Ah, yes. The 80’s prom dress. At least the 70’s was about being a damned dirty hippie. The 80’s seemed to cling to the poof skirt-bridesmaid-from-hell theme like a couple of drunks.
I didn’t go to my prom and I turned out just fine.
My school didn’t even have a prom. It was just too small to bother. We would have had to invite grades 6-12 just to get enough people.
Last night I had one of the 1st-years in my lab over for dinner. I’m not sure how the topic came up, but she told me that she didn’t go to hers. She was actually seeing someone at the time, but before they started dating he had already made arrangements to go with some other girl as a friend. So my coworker sat at home, alone, while her boyfriend went to prom with some other girl.
I’m not sure how long that relationship lasted.
I skipped our seventh form Ball - didn’t have a boyfriend, didn’t like dressing up and didn’t want to pay for the tickets. I went to the movies with some friends from anoth school, came home and hosted the afterball, which was completely kickass and a lot more fun.
Five years after the event, I don’t regret not going at all. I think, though, that if I hadn’t had something to focus on I would have felt a bit sorry for myself. It seems that most posters, whether they went or not, remember what they did on the night. Odds are, you’ll remember what you did and how you felt, so my advice, which is worth exactly what you paid for it is skip the prom if you don’t want to go but do something a little out of the ordinary - take yourself to a movie or go shopping, or hell, buy takeaways from the expensive chinese place instead of the regular one. Something for yourself, and something you’ll enjoy.
And there you have it- go to the prom and you may end up married- so don’t go! 
I went to prom and was sorry I did.
It was the only dance I went to in all 4 years. I was determined to go. Back then, you were not allowed to go with a group of friends: you had to have a date or escort or the opposite sex. Georgia B. created a HUGE stir when she showed up in a tuxedo. (this was 1980). I was convinced, in my paranoid little brain, that MUCH fun was to be had at prom–fun that I had somehow missed out on being a Rowdy at the basketball games, VP of the Apathy club etc. Something mystical and magical and important happened at prom–everyone talked about it. It must be so.
So, I started dating this guy in March and he eventually asked me to prom. I got a dress and shoes and flowers etc. And to prom we went. At the door, the girls were given a dance card. And I thought (this is how naive and silly I was) that there would be dancing. As in foxtrot, waltz etc. I had spent waaaay too much time in historical novels and not enough in RL. (FTR, I have no problem with dancing as it is known today–but I was in a long, formal gown; my date in a tux…)
It was nothing. I cannot describe the letdown it was to me. This was not a glamorous event downtown (at the Palmer House, no less) with high school kids acting well. This was a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds playing dress up in a fancy, posh hotel. I was dismayed. Somehow, despite having been with these people for the past 4 years (and some of them since kindergarten), I had expected some kind of Cinderella transformation and they would become young ladies and gentlemen. God knows what era that expectation came from–Victorian, perhaps.
Now, I don’t say you’d have the same expectations of “magic” as I did (who could except perhaps the mentally ill?), but I am here to tell you that if you don’t go, this is what you’ll miss:
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the couple that has been together since freshman year will break up in a spectacular way on the dance floor.
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several persons of each sex will vomit in the respective bathrooms.
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there will be no dinner table conversation. There will be talk and gossip about the most superficial and mundane things.
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several “men” will decide it is funny to heckle the band/DJ/orchestra and/or spike the punch. This is not funny. It will lead to the chaperons stopping the music to lecture all on their deportment, manners and behavior (of course, today–the lecture would most likely not occur).
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you will either get drunk and wish you hadn’t or not and wish you had. Either way you will be exhausted on the morrow.
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you will go to school Monday and “tell all about prom”. What you tell will not resemble what really occurred in any way. This will be true of everyone who attended.
IOW, don’t bother. But you do need to go out more.
I went to a couple of proms. I was invited to a third, but by that time I’d realized it was just another school dance. The fancy dress didn’t make it fun.
Funny this thread should pop up…I was just telling my daughter the other day that everyone tells teenagers that high school will be the best years of their lives, but it ain’t necessarily so. You have a lot of stuff to look forward to that’ll be way more fun than prom.
Didn’t go, still not regretting it now 15 years later. Haven’t been to any reunions either, have no plans to ever go to one.
I did have a boyfriend I could have gotten to take me (heck, he would have liked it better than I would have). I only had acquaintances in my year- I talked to them in class, but didn’t hang out with them outside of school.
There are two real reasons why I didn’t go, though. First, I am not into getting my hair, nails, and makeup done. I go through phases when I don’t mind dressing up, but that time of my life was definitely one of the opposite phases. The second, and probably more important reason, is that my mom would have made some huge rite of passage out of the whole thing. She was trying to do that quite a bit around then (understandably- I’m the oldest), and that’s one of the things she did that really got on my nerves.
Ha, that was a very big factor in my not going to the third prom! I just couldn’t take Mom getting all wound up about it.
Exactly. It sucks that a few of them have tracked me down on Facebook.
So I need to tell a good senior prom story.
I went to my senior prom with a friend of mine with zero romantic expectation in a borrowed dress and had a lovely time.
I returned the favor and went to his senior prom with him - in another different borrowed dress.
It was at that prom I met Brainiac4 who I’ve been married to for going on 15 years and have two kids with.
So I’m glad I went to both proms - they were fun and it gave me a great answer to “where did you guys meet.”
But I don’t think that is a good reason to go - Brainiac4 and I met at prom, but we would have met shortly thereafter as I got sucked into my ‘date’s’ circle of friends - of which he belonged. And it took us another eleven years before the two of us dated. If I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t know that I didn’t have a great answer, and our answer would be “uh, party?” But I don’t think my fate would have changed.
Went twice, once with a girlfriend and once with a friend. Moderately enjoyed it.
Honestly, it’s the sort of thing that you can take or leave–but if your friends are going, go. Any excuse to hang out.
What do I REALLY regret? Not taking Heather (or was it Helen? Twins with the same hobbies are hard to distinguish from a decade and a half away) to the Freshman Dance. I was still a little too dorky and googly-eyed to realize that even though a senior was asking me out to a dance in the middle of flirting with me at rehearsal, she might actually mean it. (and it would have been fun in any case) Of course, it wasn’t until years later I realized she was probably actually flirting and not just being friendly.
No you won’t regret not going, unless you’re of those people for whom high school is the highlight of your life- most people move on and don’t look back. If not going to prom is going to even matter one iota in your adult life, somethings wrong, no matter how great a time you may have. Also, class rings are useless and a waste of money- you’ll never wear it after you graduate, unless you’re a kook, and is graduating high school really such an accomplishment that you need a ring to commemorate the event?
Nothing about a prom in and of itself is special, other than you could have a great time, but you have just as great a time at any given party you attend, or any given event. And if dances aren’t your bag anyway, save the grand most spend for a trip.
I think lobotomyboy63 has some interesting things to say.
But I went, and I had a lot of fun. But I was seeing someone at the time - I didn’t have to dredge up a date just for the occasion. I wasn’t one of the Cool Kids[sup]TM[/sup] in high school, but I had enough friends who also went that it wasn’t awkward.
When we went to my high school reunion, my wife made it a point to meet the women I went to proms with, and was reassured because they are now both fat and dowdy looking.
Regards,
Shodan
Neither Pepper Mill nor I attended our high school proms. Neither of us have ever regretted it.
YMMV, of course.
I didn’t go and don’t regret it. By the end of Senior year, I was just ready to get the whole thing over with. I knew I was going to college as were most of my classmates.
I didn’t like dressing up back then and I still don’t like it today.
I went to my high-school prom, but don’t remember it.
In Ontario at the time, there was an extra grade 13 intended for students going on to university, so that at the end of each year, some students were graduating from grade 12 and others from grade 13. The twelvers were typically going to get jobs at GM, skip university, and move into the the whole making money thing sooner. (In those days you could still get a good manufacturing job right out of high school).
I know that if I hadn’t gone, I would be forever wondering about it. As it was, I had no date, but I went anyways. I do remember walking up the road after leaving; I felt odd, like I was looking out into space and a new horizon. All the things I was familiar with were ending. It was finally too late to do anything about the old fears and hopes.
Little did I realise how completely university would replace what went before.
I went. Meh.
However, I still have the gown, which is classic enough to rewear for a work holiday party a few years ago. That was worth it. “OMG she’s in a DRESS!” 
I didn’t go to my senior prom.
The girl I was dating was a year behind me, so I wound up taking her to her senior prom. If it was anything like mine was, I didn’t miss much.