This year, to many students’ chagrin, prom is set for May 20, 2017. More than a month later than Prom 2016, May 20th also happens to be the Saturday before LFA’s final exams. Last year, prom, which also happened to be biggest dance of the year, fell on April 16th. This date was ideal because exams were more than a month away, so there was still ample time to study. Exams starting the weekend directly after this prom will surely add some more stress to an already stressful weekend, filled with hair and makeup appointments and last minute dress fittings.

  Prom is usually the most popular dance for Lake Forest Academy’s student body. Every year, the junior class decides an amazing location and theme, with everything planned to a tee. LFA is unique in that prom is open to the whole school, so it often results in a large turnout of students. I went to prom freshman and sophomore year, and plan on going to prom this year and next as well.

  The date for this year’s prom had been decided since the beginning of the year, after discovering that the original date fell on Easter weekend. Parents had complained about it interfering with the holiday, so the only other available date was on the 20th. An email was sent in the fall announcing the date in a parents newsletter, but it still ended up taking many people by surprise when it was declared during morning meeting.

 Although prom is usually set to start in the evening, the festivities leading up to it end up taking the whole day. In my experience, the hours have flown by as I race from hair to nail to makeup appointment, before meeting my friends to take pictures, and then finally arriving at school for the pre-prom.

  After hearing the news about the date change, I was distraught. What did this mean for my prom plans? Would I have to choose between cherished memories with my friends, or possibly my grades? My friends and I mourned over the possibility of either, but in the end decided that going to prom was worth losing the possible study time. After asking more people from LFA’s student body, I learned that this was popular opinion. Almost everyone I asked said that although it was inconvenient, they still planned on attending. Hopefully parents won’t be complaining about the bad grades!