Junior/Senior Banquet

One of the special priviliges Ryan gets as a senior sponsor is a free date night to Junior/Senior Banquet. This year we got to go to Lo Sole Mio, an Italian restaurant in Omaha. The banquet was held in the party room, and it was very elegant and felt more friendly than I remember our prom to be. It was fun to dress up and go out, and I think all the students were impressed (even though Ryan wears ties daily to school). They served a buffet-style meal, which was probably more budget friendly, with cheesecake for dessert (and some of the best truffles I've ever had in my life).

As Ryan & I attended public school, I was struck by some of the great differences between this banquet and a typical high school prom:

• Most Christian schools don't have dancing. This is a major portion of most public schools' prom event.


• The atmosphere at Lo Sole Mio was nicer than the decorated cafeteria for our Senior Prom.


• The girls at Omaha Christian Academy were required to bring in their fancy dresses to school and get them pre-approved in order to wear to the banquet. I could tell that some of them had been tastefully altered in order to remain modest. I was very appreciative of this precaution.


• Most girls going to public high school prom go out and get their hair done, paying anywhere from $30-$100. I could tell that most of the girls at the OCA banquet had either done their own hair or simply had someone help them curl it or style it for their special evening.


• I don't remember what sort of program the juniors prepared for our senior prom, only that the theme was "My Heart Will Go On" because of Titanic's huge success that year. This never made much sense to me, as this song was sung as the main character's lover was drowning in freezing cold water. That's what I want to remember on my prom night. Anyway, the OCA juniors prepared lively entertainment of Junior Wills (where seniors will something to specific juniors) and Senior Prophecies (where seniors will end up), both of which are comment in Christian schools. Then they had the seniors play "guess that quote", which turned out to be lively entertainment as well (even for me, who doesn't know any of them particularly well).


• The OCA afterparty was simply to meet at a recreation center and do games. That was pretty much the same as ours, because we had our post-prom at a bowling alley with additional games available. The difference? Ours lasted until 5:00 a.m. OCA's lasted until 11:30 p.m.


• I hate to be so presumtuous, but I can say almost with certainty that no one lost their virginity tonight and no one spent the night in a hotel room.

Ryan and I didn't even have to go to the afterparty, so we stopped by the Caskey's house for a nice adult chat after our lovely evening out (hey, we did have an overnight babysitter!). Thanks, Adina, for the pictures!