There are a handful of memories from high school that I look back on with sentimental fondness. The first time I drove alone after I got my license-but just to a house down the block. An exceptionally wild party, the morning after which I told my mother I was sick from “bad potato salad.” Each of these incidents signified a time where I played adult, just for a moment, before I actually became one. I appreciate those moments, but would I ever want to reenact them? Absolutely not.
Today’s New York Times ran an article on an adults-only prom in Green Bay, Wisconsin . The prom was pegged as “a do-over, another shot at perfection.” I never went to prom, but for the life of me I can’t understand why someone would want to revisit that event. Never mind the fact that the original prom was obviously only so-so for the people attending this version 2.0-but isn’t there something to be said for events that were only awesome because they made us feel like adults? (Or at least, what we imagined adults felt like?) The fact that Disney produced the new Prom movie says it all: Prom is an event for children. Nostalgia is acceptable, but trying to rewrite history is impossible. The big dance should be filed away with all those other firsts that made me realize why it’s cool to be an adult-finally.
