It seems that high school students, girls especially, love to soak up every iconic moment of their high school experience. Homecoming, pep rally and championship games are all events that no one wants to miss, but on the top of that list are the various school and county-wide dances.

At Staples High School there are four dances for the junior and senior classes; Counties and Red and Whites take place in January while Junior and Senior Prom happens during the last couple months of school.

This means that at this time of the year, right when students come back from December break, anxiety and stress levels are rising and preparations for the big weekend are in full swing.

If you’re not accustomed to a Westport dance you’re probably wondering why preparing for a dance is such a process.  There is a simple answer to your query: in the 06880 we like everything bigger, better, louder and longer.

Bigger? How about a 30 passenger party bus costing upwards of $1000.

Better? A prettier designer dress than the girl standing next to you.

Louder? Publicly disclosing every lavish detail of your plans.

Longer? Pre-pictures with hor dourves, then the actual dance, and a four-hour long after party to follow.

The senior class has done it all before. They had to stress out about finding a group and an after party and picking out what dress to wear last year for Counties, and now they’re doing it all again.  In just a couple days they will be attending Red and Whites.

As for juniors like me, the whole thing is kind of new to us. There was a Facebook group started in September for all the junior girls where individuals were to write who their date were and to post their dresses to make sure that nobody had the same one.

Then on top of that there were smaller Facebook groups created for groups of 15 to thirty friends to organize a party bus to transport to the dance, pictures before the dance, and the after party.  All of that preparation for one night

If we were in another school in a different state I don’t think we would be doing anywhere near as much preparation as students at Staples do. What ever happened to the classic “10 Things I Hate About You” prom scene where Joey picks up Bianca from her house and they drive away in his sports car? Compared to everything we do now… it’s ridiculous.