A Mormon Prom

I have been Mormon my whole life and sometimes I just do not fit it. Most of the time I forget I am different and live my life according to my standards regardless of the situation. My religion seems in my face when I am at a school dance because everyone is bumping and grinding when I have been taught my body is a temple. I guess I am so not involved in the world that school dances make me awkward and feel gross but come to find out I am not the only one. Many Latter Day Saint Youth like myself feel the same way about school dances so we got together and started to plan a Mormon prom. The first prom happened in 2006 but there were only 5 stakes invited and it was not a huge event. I knew that I needed to take this to the whole Bay Area and make it big enough for all the Mormon Youth to participate. For the prom in 2007 we contacted 12 stakes and 9 formally agreed to be a part of it. 12 local youth that lived by me were gathered at my choice to be on a committee to plan this dance. Two amazing women were chosen to be my adult representatives. The theme was "Oh, the Places You'll Go." The decorations consisted of huge 25-foot by 50-foot silhouettes of pyramids, the sphinx, the coliseum, the statue of liberty and a skyline of New York City. We had a 30-foot tall Eiffel Tower and a 3D volcano with smoke coming out of the top. There was a drop ceiling of 12 rolls of one hundred feet of black tablecloth. There was a river (not real water) that expanded the whole back wall of the room that went under the Eiffel Tower and had rocks lining both sides. The DJ was playing music from the tiki hut we built him. When you stepped into the room with all the food it was as if you stepped into China Town in San Francisco. The food was amazing there were egg rolls, crapes, little weenies, papayas, mangos, chocolate fountains, cream puffs, and everything else we could think of. There was an inner eating area and an outer eating area. This dance provided a place for Mormon youth to feel comfortable with who they are and not have to worry about the people around them. The dance was a place to let Latter Saint Youth step away from the world and come somewhere they feel loved and admired.