Have you ever been dancing in the competition gym at 8 p.m. during the middle of a good song when your friend runs up to you, eager to leave, and says, “We’re leaving right now to find a ride to post?”

That makes two of us.

Starting weeks before the dance, girls search to find their dates and then have to figure out a clever way to ask them.  There is also the stress of finding the perfect dress to go along with that date. However, once the day finally hits, it’s all worth it.

Every girl like me knows the classic dance day schedule full of nail, hair, and makeup appointments.  Students take what seems like a whole day to prepare for a night in the high school competition gym, but they end up being on the dance floor for roughly 30 minutes.  This is followed by a crowd of students sitting around the commons for 15 minutes searching for a ride to a post party.

What is the point of all the preparation and excitement for 45 measly minutes at the actual event? Students get dressed up, pay money for a ticket and make a decently big deal about a dance that they don’t even want to stay at for a long time.

Students constantly underestimate the fun that lies within the double doors of the high school.

“The dance is as fun as you make it,” senior Margaux Miller said.  “If you act too cool for it, you won’t have any fun. Going in with a negative attitude will only have a negative outcome.”

If you take time to enjoy the dance and look around making the most of it, you will be the one having a memory to tell later.  “It was fun dancing with people I didn’t know well and just being unified as a school having fun and dancing,” Junior Lucy Surkamer said.

Take a chance and embrace everyone around you.  It’s not long until you are off to college leaving your high school life behind.

Although people step on your feet, everyone is sweaty, and your favorite song might not be playing, you only have four turnabouts in your life.  Make them count and don’t focus on trying to go somewhere better. Dance with someone you don’t know and try and stay longer than expected.

Consider this for the future.  If you’re a senior like me, you still have prom. Let go of the “too cool for school” stigma and participate for a change.  I know I will.