Homecoming may come off as any other high school dance: either memorable or pointless. However, to seniors like me, it was a night filled with endless dancing to music blaring from the speakers, getting strikes in bowling, taking pictures, and making long-lasting memories. The only downside that we had to face the fact that it was our very last Homecoming dance.
And because it was our last one, we seniors celebrated the night like no other.
I remember looking forward to the dance, and feeling pressured to go all out. Prior to the big day, weeks of planning, stress, and drama ensued. This meant limos, dates, fancy restaurants, a big group of friends to go with, and lots of pictures. Already, money was a huge problem, and not having a date was the end of our lives. Things go from bad to worse as my ideal senior plans for Homecoming were ruined. With all of this stress, why even bother going?
Because it’s senior year. During those moments of stress, the fact that it’s the last Homecoming dance is what’s been keeping many of the seniors’ heads up to get through it all. Was it worth it? That’s what I kept telling myself. In the end, I was right.
I ended up not going in a big limo. Instead of going with an exaggerated group of fifty people, I went with five of my closest friends. When we got out of the car in the Anaheim Garden Parking Structure, it really did feel like our dance’s theme, “A Night on the Town”. We arrived early and felt like we were VIP; taking red carpet photos made us feel like celebrities. Inside, we immediately saw about ten large screens that advertised the dance. The lights from the bowling lanes, however, drew us towards them and we went bowling first.
We bowled for a bit, but eventually hit the dance floor. This was probably the first time in a long time that the DJ did not fail us. There wasn’t an explosion of repetitive house music and the remixes were justified to its original songs. I was also very impressed that the DJ even played some top 40’s songs from the past.
The speakers pumped out music the whole night, and we danced under the dimmed colored lights. Multiple times, when the DJ called out to “the Class of 2012”, we seniors cheered and celebrated as we realized that it was our very last Homecoming dance. I remember when my heart skipped a beat whenever the DJ called out to us because I realized that I’ve been waiting him to say that since freshmen year.
The dance ended, and we all walked (or danced) out of the dance floor to a remix of “Dancing in the Dark” by Dev. And when it was all over, I definitely did not regret going to Homecoming. All of the stress from the past few weeks were worth it as senior year started out with one of the greatest dances hosted by FVHS.
From a senior perspective, Homecoming was a huge success. It was night full of memories that I will never forget and one of the few highlights of my high school experience.
