This year’s Prom was held at the Odysea Aquarium on April 26th. Despite the long drive, the venue was highly anticipated. When students walked through the door they were able to choose between going straight to the dancefloor, or taking a detour to look at the open exhibits.
For the exhibit route, an escalator led up to the second story where students could explore and look at all kinds of fish, reptiles, and mammals like penguins or otters. Eventually, students reached another escalator that descended through a tunnel with fish swimming on all sides. At the bottom there were tanks filled with jellyfish surrounded by tables and chairs with desserts. There were many different directions to go and a decent amount of the aquarium was open. Continuing on, students walked past sharks and countless other creatures until they came back to the lobby where they started. The aquarium area was open all night so students were able to go back through and look at the creatures as many times as they wanted.
Some of the students’ favorites were the shark and penguin tanks. Junior Danika Newberry describes how the sharks would come very close to the glass so her and her friends watched them with their phones glued to the glass to get a perfect picture.
After looking into the marine world, the dance floor was the next stop. It was held partially outside and unfortunately the space felt a bit small. Also, compared to past venues, the music sounded oddly quiet. Some students complained about the lack of slow songs, with only one or two all night long.
However, this didn’t stop the dancefloor from being a fun time. Senior Ava Stojanovski describes Prom as being “absolutely incredible,” and she “had so much fun dancing and moshing with [her] friends.”
The overall atmosphere of the aquarium definitely made up for any way the outdoor area fell short. Being able to walk through the exhibits offered a nice relief from four hours of dancing, and junior Celia Goh says that being able to walk around was her favorite part because it meant “not be[ing] restricted to one space.” Stojanovski also adds that Prom offered her her first opportunity to visit the aquarium.
Halfway through the dance, prom royalty was announced. The prince and princess were Emmanuel Hana and Rowan Cross. The king and queen were Sebastian Haag and Lily Motz.
Overall, Prom night was definitely a hit and the location made the night fun and memorable. Seniors had an amazing last dance in their high school career.
