Back in high school I considered going to the senior prom, but didn't see the point. Sure, I could have agonized for a while like everyone else, spent a bunch of money, and gotten involved in an awkward social situation, but I didn't. (In fairness, I almost did.)

For about a month before the prom, I listened to some of the others (mostly girls) talk about it. They were neurotic messes, but they were happy neurotic messes. The monday after the prom, they were all bitching about it.

As far as I'm concerned, prom is a big celebration for the in-crowd, and it's more like a wake. They're celebrating because this is the last chance they're going to have to live off their baseless popularity and cults of personality. When it became such a big deal, the less popular people started going too.

Personally, I resented the fact that even one dime of tax money went into funding it.

I had a graduating class of about 650. The high-and-mighty popular people from the class haven't done that well. Examples:

  • One "student leader" flunked out of a local community college with a 0.63 GPA.
  • Another "student leader" quit college less than a year after starting and promptly started sleeping around, and managed to get pregnant. The guy promptly ran away.
  • Another popular individual who had dated or been on flirtatious terms with a good portion of the popular female component of the class came "out of the closet" and proclaimed to the world that he is gay. I'm sure this came as quite the shock to the girls he'd dated. No comment.
  • One got shot in the head during a botched drug deal. He apparently figured that he could take the drugs and keep the money.

    Of the 15 or so people I can respect:

  • One is designing sattelite guidance systems and isn't even out of college yet. She's managed to amass enough cash from this to put herself through the remainder of undergrad and through graduate school.
  • At least two are applying to medical school.
  • Several are in some other form of professional program, such as nursing school.
  • One girl, who I respected greatly, seems to have gone off the deep end. Nobody I've talked to has heard from her in a couple years. She sent me a letter and asked me to write back. I did and never got a response, which was very out of character for her. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'll start doing major detective work on it, mostly because I'm not fond of possibly being labelled a stalker. (Another example of how it's hard to care in a politically correct society.)
  • One is finishing up his education at Moorehouse College.
  • I lost track of the rest.

    With the exception of that one girl, I guess it's another example of how the "losers" in high school (i.e. the geeks) wind up employing the losers who tormented them in the first place.