Students in the Class of 2017 convened at the St. John Hall to take photos before heading to Last Hurrah.
Last week, I was both sad and surprised when I heard that a majority of my friends were unsure whether or not they would attend First Hurrah. I couldn’t imagine why people would skip this event. As someone who enjoys getting dressed with my friends for any high-school tradition or party, I was disappointed to hear that the primary reason girls decided not to go to First Hurrah was fashion. After putting some thought into it, however, I understood why outfit choices might worry certain students.
It’s rather difficult to stay perfectly fashionable throughout all formal occasions of one’s Choate career. If each a girl attended every dance possible during her Choate career, she would go to four Convocations, four Holiday Balls, two 3/4s, 2 First Hurrahs, 2 Garden Parties, one Last Hurrah, and three graduations while not graduating, and one graduation while graduating. Even though this totals up to 20 events, girls are still expected to attend every dance or event wearing something original and, more important, new. Even thought I counted all the major events up, when you include smaller events like special program, I calculated that every female student is expected to purchase around 24 outfits throughout her four years here. For a lot of us, it has become normal for us to ask our parents to buy all of these clothes. Because of this, I hardly ever hear students complaining about the need to constantly buy new dresses. Rather, students justify not attending events like First Hurrah by citing a lack of fashion inspiration.
Maybe this reasoning could be defended if students remembered what their friends wore to every occasion, but the truth is that after a couple of weeks, few individuals will recall what you wore. As a matter a fact, hardly any of my friends remember what I wore to Holiday Ball freshman year, or even what I wore to it this year! What students don’t forget, however, is when an outfit is worn twice. This pushes people to put excessive amounts of time and energy into finding pretty things that are not too expensive but original enough that nobody else would be wearing it. For example, many students recall Angela Zhao ’19’s arrival to 3/4 freshman year in jeans and heels. Many others choose to go the same route, choosing to wear joke outfits instead of spending an unnecessary amount of money on a new one.
People fear wearing things that are out of their comfort zones, scared of what others would think, and scared that they would stick out too much. Although I am always the first to say that dressing up in chic clothing is special and fun, it is also O.K. to forget to buy the perfect dress and have to improvise at the last minute.
Furthermore, why has it become so difficult to recognize that these are just high school events? Nobody should really care about outfit repetitions or underdressed students, because feeling comfortable in what you’re wearing is what truly matters. If a student decides that he or she doesn’t want to put as much effort into one dance’s outfit and feels comfortable with that decision, then why should it be an issue?
The Choate student body adores all of the traditions and events given to us, yet we should cut ourselves some slack when it comes to what we wear to them.
