Maria Carolina Martins
Hair, check! Makeup? Check! Corsage? Check! Dress? Check! Let’s go then!
Prom night! For some, the most expected night of the year, for others, a little distraction before hell week begins. For seniors, this night celebrates the end of a cycle: finally free, free of exams, free of school. It’s a night of celebration, nostalgia, and a night to grip onto the last bit of the reality they have come to know for a long time now. For us juniors, it’s a night to dance, relax, and take our minds off of the inevitable suffering coming in a very close future: finals week.
Prom is a night to enjoy, dance, sing, and celebrate. However, it doesn’t start on that very night of the event, but months before the actual date. A lot of preparation and thought is needed to prepare the event and to make it memorable. This year, I had the opportunity to be a part of the committee behind the magic, and MC the event alongside Jenny (G11), and am going to tell you all the deets and secrets behind the creation of this special night.
The whole thing starts with our supervisor/head of the committee, Mr. Crespy. Mr. Crespy has been organizing the proms for the past eight years and it’s no wonder he always manages to create an incredible evening to celebrate our amazing seniors. I had a chat with him about some of the things that went well, some behind the scenes, and some things we should look out for next year. When asked about the early preparations “So first we need to get the committee together. That’s for seniors and me. And then we ask for juniors to join us. When we have the team together, we need to visit various venues and select the ones that have the best facilities for us.”
Every year, the committee is composed of four juniors and four seniors. This year’s committee involved seniors Jessica, Shana, Masanori, and Kamil, and juniors Jenny, Hanako, Go, and myself. The seniors make most of the decisions such as the theme for the event (which we did not have this year), playlists, sitting charts, etc, after all, it is their night. Juniors are responsible for making their wishes happen; creating the designs for the table tents, sorting out the voting system, hosting the night, and ensuring it runs smoothly, so our Seniors can truly enjoy it. Mr. Crespy explained, “We have a long list of items that we need to do.
We need to complete it by the day of the event. So it includes buying those items like the crowns, choosing the music, choosing who’s going to be the MC, all that kind of stuff.”
After all that previous preparation comes the night of the event. The juniors that form part of the committee are asked to arrive earlier in order to greet the guests, prepare the mics, connect the music, and make sure everything is in place. We don’t have much to do in the evening of the event, as the people working in the venue prepare most of the things needed for the night, but we still need to double-check everything is in place before guests start to come in.
A significant part of the prom event is the voting and announcement of the prom court, composed of the Queen and King, Prince, and Princess, the best couple, and most uniquely dressed. The prom king and queen are allocated for two seniors who this year were awarded golden crowns, and the prom princess and prince are for two juniors, recognized with silver crowns. This year, Prithu and Jessica were crowned our prom king and queen, and Martin and Mathilda were crowned prom prince and princess. Mathilda’s initial reaction to this result was surprised, but she further explained that “it was really nice after [she] got over the fact that it was kind of unexpected.” When asked about their favorite part of the event, Martin and Mathilda agreed that the dancing portion of the evening was their favorite, Mathilda specifying, “The real dancing, not the slow dancing.”
As for the most original category, Masanori was given the sash. Mr. Crespy found this part particularly memorable, as Masanori himself was the one who made the sash.
I also asked people what some other memorable moments were and their overall impressions of the evening. Jenny described the night as “pretty fun”, and that she had a good experience. Comments about the food were also recurrent, Jenny commenting, “The food wasn’t as terrible as people said it was.” Mr. Crespy also commented on the food, stating, “I think the food was great. Maybe not enough for some of our big eaters, but I love the quality of it and the atmosphere was really nice.” He also made sure to mention the emceeing which, for him “was really good and struck the right note throughout the evening” (FLEX).
Some unfortunate things happened throughout the night, like the powerful rain that took over the skies that day, the extensive amount of time we ended up needing to take the group photos, and the insane amount of time for counting the votes needed which consequently led to only thirty minutes of dance. Additionally, HL psych students needed to take their final IB exam an hour before the event was set to start, which led to a delay in the start time of the event and some seniors arriving later than expected.
Overall, the night was, in my humble MC opinion, a success. Even with little flaws that affected the predicted rhythm of the event, I do believe everyone had a lot of fun and was able to enjoy themselves, take lots of pictures, and have a lively night that is going to be remembered for time to come.
Maria Carolina Martins