Let’s be honest, prom can be stressful. What dress am I gonna wear? Will I have to get it altered? How will I do my hair? My makeup? What shoes should I wear? Folks, fear not, because a new era of prom is emerging. The year is 2024 and we will all be wearing face paint to prom. 

Here’s the problem with upperclassmen: we take ourselves too seriously. Why should a night that is supposed to be fun, become stressful when caught up in appearances, when there’s one thing we should have all learned is that appearances don’t matter. Everyone is so caught up in looking their best and then we forget who we are on the inside. 

Remember when in middle school you took that Pottermore Patronus quiz or that Buzzfeed quiz which told you what pizza topping you were? We need to channel that into prom this year. After all, prom is that one night we get to be animals, so why not channel it in on the outside, too. 

As a child, going to state fairs and getting a butterfly or a tiger or a dog painted on your face was a sort of out-of-body, magical, esoteric, cultural-reset of an experience. Who said we ever had to grow out of that? So, if I don’t see everyone at prom lined up to get Spiderman on their face, count me out, because this is the year of unleashing your inner animal.