I believe every situation should be seriously considered, if a student is required to obtain permission from the school to bring dates that are not students and probably several years older than most of the students who will be attending the prom. My initial thoughts are, if its your school prom, you should be allowed to take whoever you want as your date. I just saw the sweetest story where a young teenage high school student took his 85 yr old Grandmother to his prom as his date, because his grandmother never had the chance to attend her own prom-I thought this was one of the sweetest selfless acts of love a teenager could give their grandmother during an occasion that most teens get super absorbed into thenselves & everything they want/think they have to have in order to enjoy a few hours at a special school dance. I think proms have gotten too comercialized & over the top, as far as the expense involved with sending a kid to a prom for a few hours. I get that it should be special & different, but its also not a wedding, a much more special & sacred event where two people make a life long commitment to each other. To me many people go all out to make a prom night almost as expensive as a small wedding. Back to the topic of the question asked about an 18 year old taking a 25 year old to the prom as their date. I was 17 my senior year of high school & MADLY in love with my very first love & long term boyfriend, who was 5 yrs older than me. My father didnt like the fact that his 17 year old daughter was in a serious long term relationship with a 22 year old man, simply because there is usually a pretty big difference in the maturity level & life experiences of a 17 year old compared to a 22 year old. I had always been pretty mature for my age & once I fell in love and shared a relationship with a 22 year old, I became much more responsible & stopped doing a lot of stupid crap that kept me in trouble and carefree with my school work & grades. I wanted to always do/show my best and not embarrass myself by acting childish & irresponsible. After cutting classes & living in in school suspension much of my Sophomore & Junior years, barely making passing grades both years, I made a complete turn around my senior year, I didnt cut a single class the entire year, I made A-B Honor Roll & only had to take 2 midterm exams because my grade was only a high B in both classes and an A was required in order to excempt those exams. Those were the only two exams I had to take my entire Senior year because I was able to exempt the midterm exams for the rest of my classes & ALL of my final exams at the end of the year because I ended my senior year with a straight A report for all of my classes & exempted every exam. But 3 months before my Senior year would end and my High School Graduation, the boyfriend that I loved & adored was killed in a horrible car accident while he was at Ft Bragg Army base for his National Guard weekend drills. It was HORRIBLE. His unexpected & tragic death occured the 1st day of March & my Senior Prom was scheduled to occur in mid May. I had already been chattering with excitement about going to my prom with my boyfriend before he was killed-He didnt seem to excited about stepping backwards in time for him by attending a high school prom, but he was willing to be my prom date because he knew the event was important & special to me. I had already purchased my prom dress & knew what colors I wanted his tux & accessories to be in order to match my dress. Sadly, he was killed before we ever made it to the prom. As an act of kindness for me & love for the brother he just lost, my boyfriend's older brother stepped up to the plate & offered to escort me to my Senior prom. He was 25 yrs old & I was 17 yrs old. Even though he was a very handsome man, he just seemed to be too old for me to see much physical attraction, I was still in deep grief, had no interests in dating anyone else & was appreciative & grateful to the older brother for offering to be my prom date, because Id pretty much decided I wasnt going to go at all, but my boyfriend's family was afraid I would regret not going, which is why his older brother offered to take me. I really didnt have a good time, I missed my boyfriend & was too worried about what people would think about me once they saw me with this old man for a prom date...lol I felt like I was with the oldest man in the county & it bothered me pretty bad. Now when I look back at my prom pictures he doesnt look anywhere near as old as I thought he looked through my 17 yr old eyes, he was actually a very handsome man and we made a very beautiful couple together for my Prom night & wished I had relaxed & enjoyed myself more than I did because I was consumed with what everybody else would think/say about me, when I shouldnt have cared. Id very recently lost my 1st loved one to a very tragic death & his brother was caring & kind enough to help me get through some of the hard moments very soon after his death & made sure that I didnt miss my Senior prom...I shouldve been filled with gratitude for having people who cared very much about me than filled with worry over what the nasty snobs in my class who never cared for or did me any favors. Hindsight truly is 20/20.
