The day that so many high school students look forward to just passed for the Ransom Everglades class of 2021: Prom. And in many ways, the process was the same as it has always been. Planning began months in advance. Prom-posals started to roll out in late February. The Facebook to claim a dress rapidly grew, and the fights over who takes whom as their date played out. On the night of, everyone looked fabulous, no matter the dress or the date, and students had a grand old time. 

But so much was also different this year. Typically, RE’s prom invites both juniors and seniors, and sophomores and outside guests are allowed to attend if they are asked by an upperclassman. This year, prom became seniors–only, with no junior or sophomore dates and outside guests allowed.  

The idea of prom itself was almost entirely reinvented for the Ransom Everglades community. The coordinators struggled to find a venue, which resulted in the prom occurring in the two quads of the school’s campus. It became a COVID hazard to have a dance floor in fear of close gathering, so no dancing was allowed. And lastly, prom was cut short: whereas in previous years, it went from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., this year it went from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.  

Despite these drawbacks, most of the class of 2021 still had a blast at their senior prom. Fairy lights hung twinkling in the night sky (the theme was fairytales), and the quads looked beautiful.  

“It felt like a dream,” said Ella Rubell ’21. To Rubell, just having prom at all was a dream come true after a year with so many lost traditions and compromises. 

For some promgoers, the new rules and compressed length made the event feel a bit less magical than it was before. “It felt like we were back in seventh grade at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah,” said Chloe Wiesenfeld ’21. If, for some, that brought back memories of dancing with all your friends in a sweaty bunch on the dance floor, for others it only underscored the sad fact that dancing wasn’t possible.  

One tradition that did carry forward into this year’s prom, however, was the presence of delicious food, this time prepared by RE’s own Head Chef Alfredo Silva. A wide variety of cold, warm, and vegan hors d’oeuvres were offered. The fan favorites seemed to be the seared ahi tuna on crispy wontons with sesame-soy vinaigrette and wasabi ranch, the chicken n’ waffles bites drizzled with local Florida honey, and the fried Oreos, according to Sophie Bernstein ’21 and Hannah Waibel ’21. 

Although this was not the prom that anyone expected, the senior class is lucky they had a prom at all. The coordinators, who included faculty and student government representatives, threw together the event in a compressed timeframe, during a global pandemic, with so many variables to balance. It was everything the seniors could have dreamed of.