By Sara Solimani, Opinions Editor
River Hill’s annual homecoming dance is set to take place on October 1st at 7-10 pm this year, and there is currently a load of excitement involving buying dresses, finding dates, and deciding whether or not to go.
Students are quickly planning out how to get dresses and friends to go with as they rush to prepare for the dance. Some students feel that the dance is a lot closer than they thought it would be, and that it can be stressful after just starting to settle into their new classes.
Junior Vedanti Patel expresses the dance is at “a pretty good time, it’s not too early but not too late to start preparing for the dance.” On the other hand, Chloe Son, a fellow junior, states, “I think that homecoming is a little early because it’s not even a month after school starts and it kind of just appears really suddenly.”
Similarly to all other school years, there are students that are still on the fence about attending homecoming. Many believe that the dance doesn’t live up to all of the hype around it, but others just aren’t big fans of it. Regardless of the reasoning, students voice their opinions on this year’s homecoming, including Chloe who shares,“I think that I’m going because it’s fun to get dressed up and do it with friends,” Rebecca Sirak, a junior, adds on saying, “I always go, I wouldn’t miss it ever because I like just having the experience.”
It’s never too early to start shopping for dresses, many students agree. Finding the right dress could take weeks- or sometimes only 30 minutes. Students have many varying opinions on how early and extensive their preparation for homecoming should be. From getting their nails done to planning pictures, everyone is doing something right before the dance.
Vedanti advises, “I think getting your dress at least a month in advance is good, I got mine back in August,” Adila Ahamed agrees, expressing that, “You should buy your homecoming dress a few weeks before just so prices and availability are in your favor.”
Last year’s homecoming dance sets the stage for what this year is supposed to look like after COVID and all of the adjustments made (like having the dance on the football field). Students have many expectations based on the music, the theme of the four seasons that was announced, and the crowd when looking forward to the dance.
Going into this year’s dance, Vedanti voices that, “I don’t really have any expectations because I didn’t go last year.” Rebecca adds on saying, “I hope that it’s better this year, it was fun for the height of the dance but it died down before everyone left. The music was pretty mid and everyone left early, so I hope that gets better.”
The homecoming dance is always a great way to jump into the new year, meet new people and have fun with friends. Homecoming week is all about arriving back at school, or maybe coming here for the first time, and welcoming in the new school year. Stay tuned to see what this year’s homecoming dance has to bring.