Homecoming: that wonderful night where students stray from their everyday clothes to dress up in their classiest outfits. A night for students to relax, make memories, and dance, not one to worry about their mask falling down.

The week leading up to the dance was lively and eventful. Filled with different outfits every day, following the theme “Jukebox”, it ended with a spirited  Friday afternoon assembly, building up the student’s energy for the football game that night, and dance the next evening.

Going along with the “Jukebox” theme, the dance had musical-themed decorations around and featured three new rooms for activities: the Pulse room, the commons, and the theater. Due to COVID, ASB decided to use those rooms to spread people out; luckily, they were a big hit with the students. The Pulse room had backdrops for people to take pictures, the commons had games like ping pong and corn hole, and movies (“Tangled” and “Frozen”) played in the theater. Ginna Owens ’23 said “I think the theater was super fun, Tangled is definitely one of my favorite movies.” Owens ratings for the movie during the dance were 10/10.

The expectations for the dance set a high bar. Coming back from a year in quarantine, missing homecoming 2020, over 600 students expected the dance to wow them. In some ways, it did, and in others, not so much.

Starting the dance off rough, check-in crowded the entrance of the gym lobby, while students waited to get into the dance. After getting in, many students also had to wait in line for bag check. Following check-in, students entered the gym to find a lot of empty space. Normally the gym would be split in two, having the DJ and all the dancing on one half and bag check, photo booth, and occasionally games on the other but this year, because of COVID, the entire gym was used to give people more space. This caused one big group of people in the middle of the gym and the rest to be almost vacant. “It was kind of weird because everyone was just standing in a group and the rest of the gym was empty.” explained Julia Miller ‘24.

The spacing, although awkward, was manageable. Something students came to realize throughout the dance was that the music wasn’t how it normally was and didn’t always live up to past expectations. This was due to a new DJ who didn’t have experience with Prep’s atmosphere. The DJ didn’t use many of the students’ suggestions and turned the bass up too much, limiting how well they could hear the music. Music, arguably, is the most important part of a dance for people to have fun, making it a large factor as to why the dance was spoiled for many students.

Although the dance came with many of its downsides, the students still had a good time. The purpose of the dance was to come together to have fun and that’s what they did despite the ups and downs. Owens ‘23 commented, “my expectations for the dance were low, but it surpassed them.”