Prepare yourself. Prom season has arrived. You will soon, if you have not already, find yourself in the middle of some sort of drama. It may be about who is asking who, what group to go in, which person is paying for what, where to go after the dance, or most likely,  how you are going to come up with the money to pay for all of the festivities.

Prom is expensive. It’s a fact. Add up the price of the dress or the tux, the hair, the nails, the limo ride, the dinner, and finally, the prom ticket and you have a heart attack worthy number. For some people the price is worth the experience, but for others, handing over the money is a very hard pill to swallow.

Each year there is always a group of students that get creative with ways to make money to pay for the big event or to cut down on the costs. Some opt out of a fancy dinner and go for something inexpensive, while others ditch the limo ride. Many girls bargain shop for dresses and guys rent, rather than buy, their tuxes.

The one price that cannot change, though, is the ticket price. For the past few years the price of the actual ticket to the dance has been extremely high, nearing one hundred dollars. If girls have a boyfriend, or an awesome date who is willing to pay for it, then they avoid the costs, but the guy’s price doubles. Almost two hundred dollars, solely to have the ability to enter the dance.

As most people know, or should know, prom is paid for by the graduating class. This means that all of the fundraisers that you are skipping out on are really going to come back to bite. Typically, fifteen to twenty students get very involved in earning money for their class, and it is thanks to them that the ticket cost is below the hundred dollar line. The money that they raise by conducting car washes, bake sales, and lock-ins contribute to their class’s “festivities fund.”

I regret to say that I am not one of the people that have participated in fundraisers, but I fully admit that I wish I would have.

A word of the wise to you younger Spartans: Go to the car washes. Bake food for the bake sales. Offer to help with any other class fundraising opportunities. Because by the time that spring of your senior year rolls around, the last thing that you want to be thinking about is money.