Prom!

Prom, especially in small towns like mine, is one of the most exciting times of the year. I know that my mom would want me to say that the most exciting time is her birthday, or the fourth of July or something patriotic like that, but sorry, it's Prom. What scares me though, is that Prom is also one of the most dangerous times for us too. I know this might sound boring, but bare with me here...


Senior Prom is the last time we get to have fun and bond with our classmates before we go off to college (for Juniors the last time before the summer, and let's face it, we all lose touch in the summer). No matter how much we say that we'll stay in touch, and no matter how often we say that we'll always be friends and be the bridesmaids at each other's weddings and have kids at the same time, about 99% of this graduating class wont speak again after graduation. For sure there will always be those people that we are eternally bonded to, for whatever reason, but it's times like prom that we can use to make those connections.


Anyway, my point is that Prom is important, and we need to take advantage of it. A lot of the time I see people who get so caught up in the ritual of it, the binge drinking and co-ed sleepovers and crazy post-Proms. You know what I'm talking about, it's like we want to re-create our favorite scenes from movies or something, and we think that if we weren't completely crazy and if we didn't totally let go of our inhibitions, then we didn't get "the real high school experience" (< that phrase makes me SO MAD! But, thats for another blog. Anywayyy...). We see these things (drinking partying and sex) as a sort of rite of passage. Well, here's my question: who said that we needed to be baptized in noise, alcohol, and silliness in order to earn the right to be a high schooler, or a teenager, or a young adult, or a college student or whatever. Nobody I respect ever said that... I'm going to give you guys some reasons why we are absolutely crazy to think these things...


First, we have the statistics--
Let's say that you're planing on either going to or throwing a true-blue One Tree Hill party on Prom night (if you haven't seen OTH, that's probably for the best, but the parties on that show mostly consisted of unfortunate fashion choices, drinking and, sometimes (but not always) sex), if thats the case then here are some things to think about so that you can go into it with your eyes wide open.


>>Females process alcohol differently than males; smaller amounts of alcohol are still more intoxicating for females. So you can be drinking the exact same things as your date, and he'll still have the upper hand on you. I'm not saying that every guy is a totally bad guy and wants to take advantage of you, I don't mean that at all, but everyone knows that we are not ourselves when we have been drinking, but more on that later.
>>Among male high school students, 39% say it is acceptable for a boy to force sex on a girl who is drunk or high. This statistic seriously blew my hat off. I know that 39% not the majority, but that's still a lot. Again let's be honest, the normal code of right and wrong goes out the window when we're drunk.
>>High school students who've been drinking are seven times more likely to have had sexual intercourse. Yeah... That one pretty much speaks for itself.


I mean, I know I'm not crazy. I can't possibly be the only one who finds this disturbing. Not seeing-your-Grandmother-in-a-bikini kind of disturbing either. I'm talking Hairless-Siamese-cat-staring-you-down-when-you-open-your-eyes-in-the-morning. DIS-TUR-BING.


Next, we come to the logical reasons why its a stupid to spend the night drunk off your saddle in a bed that your parents didn't pay for. To be honest (and I promise to always be honest with you), I can only think of one--

>>Think about your oldest, closest friend. Now think about how the two of you came to be so close. I'll bet my bottom dollar that it was times that you guys spent listening to each other, making each other laugh or working together on something that you both enjoy, that really built your friendship. I haven't been to that many "high school experience" parties, but the ones that I have been to weren't great places to meet people or get to know people. They were loud, and there were people everywhere and everyone was acting like something that they weren't; drinking so that they wouldn't be responsible for things that they were either too embarrassed, or too virtuos to do when they were sober. Why bond and hang out with someone when, tomorrow, they won't be the same person that they were last night?

So I guess this really applies for any time of year, dosen't it? Find something to do with your friends that you can actually relax doing. Take time to just hang out with your friends. Canoe, hike, rock-climb. It's raining? Play some Wii or take a class at the Y. We need to spend more time actually getting to know the people in our social circle, or we'll leave high school and realize that we have no real friendship to build on; just a bunch of wild nights. Let's be rebels, guys. They say that we live in a dangerous world, our parents like to tell us all about the troubles that teens face. Let's look that danger and those troubles straight in the face and call them what they really are: a waste of time. And then throw them aside like the foolishness that they truly are.



I've been on retreat these past couple days and it's back to the grind-stone tomorrow, so good night everyone!! Keep it real, Emily