Senior Prom is a big deal, there is no denying it. Few juniors are lucky enough to be invited, so they have to come up with ways to have their own Prom-like experience. Some decide to stay at home but others rise to the meet challenge.

Junior Jenny Stern decided she was not going to let the night of Prom go to waste.

“I’m going to have a Pity Prom at my house,” Stern said. “It is going to be all junior girls who wanted to go to Prom but could not .”

The guest list is not limited to just a handful of people. It does not matter what clique those invited belong to, this night is for juniors. The only condition is that everyone wears a dress. Even the boys have to wear one if they want to join in on the fun. Though Pity Prom springs from juniors wanting a prom experience, Pity Prom is different from the real thing.

“It is just going to be a bunch of friends hanging out,” Stern said. “At a real Prom there is dancing. Whenever there is a bunch of people there that you don’t know very well, the energy is just different.”

Despite being passionate about her Pity Prom plans, Stern is not giving up hope on senior Prom.

“Yes [I would rather go to Prom], but I would still have Pity Prom,” Stern said, “I would have it on the Friday before as a ‘Pre-Pity Prom’ and then attend the real Prom.”

Some of Stern’s guests share her sentiments.

“I don’t know [if I want to go to senior Prom],” sophomore Connor Chestnut said. “It depends if I fell madly in love with some strapping young lad who sweeps me off my feet like Cinderella.”

But some of her guests are looking forward to this more than Senior Prom.

“I would much rather hang out with my friends [at Pity Prom],” junior Leslie Cunningham said.

However different Pity Prom is from Senior Prom, there are still some things in common. Dressing up is still an important factor and the classic Prom pictures every teenager loves to dread is an important part of the night. But one difference between them is that there is no pressure to have a date. The night is entirely devoted to hanging out with friends and making lasting memories that even the best Prom night could not tarnish.