The Ignatius Experience

I transferred into Saint Ignatius College Prep my sophomore year, and so as not to bore you with the details, I will describe what it is like to have finally [for the most part] finished senior year.

Relieving. The school reaches an all-time climax during your final week of school. Shenanigans have achieved a new standard, as "S-I-C-Penis" and "One-One" chants can be heard throughout the entire school. In addition to this, are the overwhelming number of final projects your teachers will assign you in the midst of not only AP exams, but also the stress associated with senior Prom. I had final projects due in all my six classes (which is a fair amount for the average senior), and as a result, didn't have the wherewithal to submit a photo for the Prom slideshow that was being showed around the venues in which Prom and Post-Prom took place, or to arrange for a pictures session at someone's house (thanks go to Maddie Greybar for her last-minute accommodation), or to set up our table for eating at Prom.

But now that that's all said and done with, why don't I expound on Prom itself? Prom was in many ways no different than the average Ignatius school dance. There was a dancefloor, a DJ, some tacky lights, teachers scouring our every move for the total four hours, and a wide slew of music. Now speaking of the music, it certainly did not at all lend itself to dancing. Starting with mainstream hits from Taio Cruz, Katy Perry, Usher, etc. gave the dance a light-hearted feel. Then all of a sudden, the DJ decided at seemingly an instant's notice to shift to through-going rap music.

Clearly the audience ate the music up, but what they didn't know is that music they perhaps weren't familiar with could be more conducive to more enjoyable dancing. Dance music, one of my favorite genres of music has many tracks that completely lack any vocals whatsoever. To me, this is not a bad thing whatsoever. Yet the crowd seemed more interested in reciting the lyrics to the numerous rap songs, rather than dancing to them. You can say rap isn't my cup of tea. The point is, I found it difficult to dance to a good number of the rap songs. While many of them have already-established dances associated with them like the 'Swag' song, or 'Dougie', there seemed to be little room for creativity in peoples' dancing.

For a lot of the more intense songs, people would more or less mosh, throwing their hands up at the sound of a thumping kick drum or "drop". To mingle more seamlessly, I found myself attempting to guess the next set of lyrics or remember the refrain so that I could sing along with the crowd.

I'm not going to provide much disclosure for this post, as all I want to say is that while Prom wasn't particularly bad, it wasn't exactly excellent either. It didn't blow me away, partly because the rap music got to me a little, and the dance didn't set itself apart from the typical Ignatius dances. The only distinction from this and the school dances is that for this people were actually dancing and there wasn't too much room, as there inevitably is in the gym, which is either for better or for worse.