Dancing the night away has never really been a Saturday night dream of mine. Instead, I’d rather stay home where I can dress as casually as I want, eat pizza, and just chill out. There is no need to get all dolled up in a dress and heels only to go dance around with a few hundred of my peers for three hours.

State High offers a total of five dances, each on a different Saturday of the year. The Homecoming dance, the winter dance, Froshmore, Junior Prom and Senior Prom. Personally, I just don’t see the point. Homecoming and Prom are the most popular, they paint the “perfect” picture of a teen’s high school experience. Or so society tells us. Those events are all over the media, television, and in high schools all across the nation. More often than not, you will see some type of school dance in any teen movie that you watch. When you walk into your grandparents house you may see old prom pictures of all your aunts and uncles. Maybe you’ll scroll through social media and see endless pictures of your peers in their fancy outfits and plastered smiles. High school dances are everywhere.

Yes, some of the dances are much better than others, and you should definitely participate in at least one. However, I still don’t understand why everyone makes such a big deal out of them. There’s a lot of pressure to find the best outfit, a date and be able to dance well. I think I’d rather stick to making other high school memories, like late night talks with my friends and aimless walks around town that are filled with laughter. In reality, you get more out of a chill night with friends than you do from a night “dancing” awkwardly to bad music blasting in a dark gym that is full of sweaty teenagers.

From my experience, the best part about the dances isn’t even the actual dance. It’s the time after the dances, when everyone is tired out and no one can form a full sentence without laughing. It’s the stupid things that you do, like making brownies at midnight or recreating parts of the dance that are the most fun.

School dances tend to be a classic high school memory, but there are so many other memorable things that you can do instead. Besides, no one really likes to pose for pre-dance pictures, and the pictures that you can get from a movie night with friends are way more hilarious.