Prom was something I’d been looking forward to since I first set foot in high school. I became even more invested this year by spending hours planning for the dance, from choosing a color scheme to selling tickets to perfecting my outfit. Although the dance didn’t even come close to my expectations, I’m still grateful I had the opportunity to spend a night celebrating with my friends.

Although I get weird looks when I tell my friends from other schools that my prom was at a train station, Union Depot was a decent venue. There was ample space and great opportunities to take pictures. However, I hope the school can find a venue closer to St. Louis Park next year because driving to St. Paul was a hassle.

Simply put, the dance was boring. The events before and after the dance — taking pictures, eating dinner at a restaurant and going to a friend’s house — were better than the dance itself. The word “dance” should be in quotes, since the dancing consisted of a small group of people brave enough to jump up and down over and over on the dance floor. It looked more like a kangaroo exhibit than dancing.

Despite the ability to request songs, the music consisted of pop hits that were more than a few years too old to be considered cool. Either my peers have terrible music taste or, more likely, most of the song requests were ignored. The music sounded the way that stale bread tastes. It was not only cringe-worthy, but also absurdly loud. Headaches and ear damage ensued from all of the noise. It was difficult to think and impossible to have a conversation.

The food provided at the dance was mediocre at best. The only options were cookies, cupcakes and water. I would have preferred more choices that included something substantial rather than just baked goods.

In a desperate attempt to engage students, someone thought it was a good idea to provide games of dominoes and chess. The effort fell flat. Those games were equally as boring as standing around and doing nothing, which is what I did for a good portion of the evening.

The saving grace of my night was the ping pong table. I genuinely enjoyed playing ping pong, possibly because I didn’t have anything better to do. I chased after a ping pong ball for an hour before my friends convinced me to leave the dance early. Next year, I would recommend that the school provide promgoers with less dominoes and more ping pong tables.

Despite the general lameness, I’m glad I went to prom, especially since it’s one of the last times I’ll see all of my friends before we graduate.

After three years of canceled or modified school dances due to COVID-19, it felt good to have a more normal school-sanctioned event. Although COVID-19 is still prevalent, the biggest let-down of the night was not a fear of contracting a virus, but rather just a bit of boredom. I’m lucky to be able to tell stories about a lame prom, given that for the past few years, going to prom wasn’t even an option.

I’m ending this column with a quote from my boyfriend that sums it all up: “We got really dressed up to play ping pong.”