U-Korner: High School Prom

Anastasiia Skoryk Reflects on the American Prom Experience

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Exchange Student Sia Skoryk and sophomore Anya Young at prom on April 18.

Sia Skoryk, Guest Columnist

Prom is the most exciting experience for a foreign exchange student. When I was younger, I watched movies about American school life. Most of them are not true. though. I had hoped that prom would be an exception. Mostly because we don’t have proms and homecomings in Ukraine. It is not part of our culture  We have dances, but no one goes there with someone else. If you did, everybody would look at you like you are crazy. This is because Ukrainian teenagers spend their time mostly with friends and only small part of it with their girlfriend/boyfriend; so, they go to a party with group of friends, too.

In Ukraine, we have something called graduation prom. On graduation, students wear something very fancy and get their diplomas in dresses and suits. Dresses are different from American prom dresses. They usually are not so fancy and glittering.  Dresses are really simple and  fashionable . They are pretty and much more popular than glittering ones.

After graduation, students go to the Childhood Hill, which is in every big city. They meet the new sunrise as adults. They will never come back to school as students anymore.

Celebration usually ends with sunrise. But some of students are still up during the day. As for me, I was done in the morning and went to bed after I came home, because usually long adventures do not have good consequences.

When I first heard that I would become a part of the amazing experience of American prom, I was so excited, but I did not know what to expect. I was thinking about all these American movies where prom was really fancy. I was hoping that this would be like High School Musical or something.  Then I told to my friends about my expectations and they tried to explain to me that prom in real life is not like this. And, of course, they were right.

First of all, I expected different dances than on homecoming (ok, I didn’t, but I hoped for it).  Dances are so different than in Europe. We dance in pairs but not in this way. The main thing about America that I want to say that it is not better and not worse, but different. Sometimes, it is not a big difference, but sometimes  you can not find similarities with your own country.

Anyway, I really had fun and decorations were beautiful. The one thing that I was confused about is that I lost my shoe at the CTC. I got it back, but that was not good adventure after all. At least I know how Cinderella did feel. And as her adventure, my American story will come to the end soon. I hope everybody will live happily ever after.