Right after solos, my cabin heard that we were going to be planning Saturday’s nightly activity. We were so excited and thought about different activities that could be fun for the whole semester. We finally decided to have a Prom Night with fairy lights, a snack table, a disco ball, and a bumpin’ playlist. With all of those wants, we needed to start planning ASAP.

We first made a loose plan of how we wanted the night to look… With Saturday night activities, our plan had to last at least from 7:30 – 9:30 pm. Having everyone entertained with just dancing is a little unrealistic, so we figured that we could have a separate room with board games and card games for people who got tired of dancing. We also had to plan out logistics for decorations, food, a playlist, and speaker situation.

The teachers who would be on duty that weekend reached out to us as a cabin and scheduled 2 lunchtime meetings so we could make a concrete game plan for Saturday. We met with Chloe and Andrew and discussed how we would plan a playlist that everyone could enjoy, what snacks we wanted, how we would listen to the music, and how we could make sure everyone had a good time.

We decided to give each cabin a piece of paper where they could write up to 10 songs that they wanted on the playlist. We thought to have popcorn and hot chocolate (the dance was in the barn that has no insulation in Maine in October). Teo and Nick provided the JBL extreme speakers, and we made a chill room where everyone could take a break if need be. The decorations we put up were fall leaf lights from Eliza, holiday lights that were already in the barn, and group pictures that Kyra and I printed out and displayed on the wall. Andrew and Chloe met with us one more time before Saturday night and helped us with any last-minute details.

Saturday afternoon after lunch, we came together and started setting up for the night. We made sure that the speakers all worked and were loud enough. All that was left to do was make the hot chocolate and pop the popcorn. After dinner, we all ran back to the cabin and got ready for the dance. Everyone was excited to dress up and wear a little bit of makeup. We went into the barn and made sure everything was looking okay. At 7:30 pm everyone gathered outside, and we let them into the barn for the dance.

The first song we played was “Timber” by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha to make sure the night started off with everyone on the dance floor. The dance was full of picture taking, dancing, a hula hoop contest, and amazing hot chocolate. The last song we played was “Wagon Wheel,” and we all got together in a circle and swayed together as we sang the entire song. It was powerful to see all of my friends in one big circle, dancing in the place that brought us all together.

The night ended late at around 10:30 pm and it was all anyone could talk about in the bathroom as we all brushed our teeth together. It was a pretty successful night; everyone loved #promnotprom.

Amelia Gambill, Midtown High School, Atlanta, GA