HW 58 - Prom Interviews

Boyfriend:

He has never been to prom and he views it more as a social event rather than a romantic event. So much so that even a few months ago when we were talking about he was shocked to hear that I was planning on attending his schools occasion. I brought up the idea of high school work resembling Cinderella’s chores and the freedom being the prom, he agreed saying that it’s the reward and symbolizes the end of that period of our lives, much like how having a child or the death of a parent is transformative. We talked about how there are two prom celebrations the prom and the after party, to him the prom represented the maturity, “play the game of live”, sell yourself out if it means larger success in the future aspects of adulthood. While the after party was the less prepared, $200 in the savings account (but that won’t control my life), irresponsible, and less tied down adult.

Mother:

My mom didn’t attend her prom. She wasn’t a steady participant of high school, she didn’t let the phrase “…but, it’s going to be the greatest night of your life” get in the way of her not going. She specified that there were simply different clicks and some were expected to attend and others simply weren’t. Prom didn’t cause any conflicts that weren’t already there to begin with.

Grandma (mom’s side):

My grandma could remember so many details about her prom, from the color of the dress she wore to the boy that she took, to the name of the club they went to for the after party. This astounded me, someone who’s been alive for 65 years still has this perfectly accurate flashback of events. She explained there were two graduation dates (therefore two proms), and people would celebrate and graduate according to the month they were born in. Even if the night wasn’t completely perfect she shared it with me as it was, I was not comfortable asking why but maybe she felt as if she owed it to her youth, what’s the use of complaining about it now. My grandma asked a family friend who lived across the street and who was four years older than she was.

Analysis:

I think that the idea that prom is reward for school work is a misconception because often time’s students can go to prom without having to have put a lot of work in for the past 4 years. I did think his idea about how the two different celebrations represent different aspects of adulthood; I think another thing he was trying to convey was that prom is the point at which the accumulation of maturity is shown starting from the beginning of high school. I was thinking that maybe certain students don’t go to their prom because they don’t feel like they deserve to be there. By my grandmas school having two graduations and proms the system of prom symbolizing transformation was more accurate than the current system because it really narrows down on the different age groups.