Two weeks. Two weeks before the date that we set, “German Club will be having the sweethearts dance on Feb. 8, get your tickets now!” 

I have to change plans and tell people I will be busy for two weeks for what? To make a dance for ‘my peers’, for myself? To make money for my club, to have something to do? 

Whatever the reason, seven of my close friends and I worked every day after school to get it ready, facing obstacle after obstacle, not having the right kind of paint, not having the things we needed as we needed them. But even with all these challenges, we still did our best and tried our hardest to get this dance done. And if you think that setting up a dance for people is easy, you are so very sorely mistaken. 

Fun, yes. Time consuming, very. Worth it, debatable. 

But the point is, despite all of our combined efforts, we had less than a hundred students show up. Now I know what you’re thinking, “What is he complaining about? 100 kids at $12 a peice is a lot of money” and you are right, but then you have to factor in the cost of expenses and the DJ and honestly, it isn’t that much. 

Last year when we did the Casino themed dance we had close to 300 kids in attendance and had a great profit. So what happened? What changed? Why is it that we put the same amount of effort and dedication into something and yet it isn’t as good? 

There are a few factors that can be taken into place for a comparison and try to help put my salty mind at ease. One, it was the same night as IF’s dance that was at the Waterfront. Fair enough, it was a better venue. But wouldn’t kids want to go to their own school dance? Nope, the abandonment of school loylty because it was “bigger and better.” Fine, we can’t force people to go to their own school’s dance. Two, the Mistletoe Mash apparently ruined a few peoples experiences. An anonymous student said, “Me and my boyfriend didn’t go because we figured it would be the same as the Mistletoe Mash, and we didn’t go to that one because tickets were like $25 and it didn’t really look worth it.” 

The biggest point I can think about is that dances are just losing popularity. We are living in such a technology-controlled world where people would find themselves figuring out what to eat and ordering it from their phone to be easier to do than walking up to a girl or guy and asking them to a dance. 

If you were to ask your parents or your grandparents about their dances they would probably have stories of which dances they went to, who they went with, what it was themed as. Yet as the times are changing, so are dances. Students used to be able to go to a school dance and have a live band and enjoy it as depicted in 80’s movies. Now we have to have smoke machines, techno music and rap getting blasted through loudspeakers, and people jump up and down instead of learning how to actually dance. I am willing to predict that in ten years time we will integrate technology into dances, like virtual dances. Despite the turnout, I am proud of my club, and I am proud of our hard work. We had fun and no one can change that. To end my soapbox, I want to thank German Club, Mrs.Zohner and her husband, Frau Youinou and Frau Ransom.