School Dance and Raffle Tickets

 

        Yesterday, I attended a school dance hosted by my school. This is the day when eager students spend their evening dancing, playing games, and chatting with their friends in our enormous school gym. Many students have been waiting for this moment for the past few weeks.

        Last year, when I attended this event, one group of students, mostly eighth graders, were talking about their high school enrollments. Another group of students, mainly sixth and seventh graders, were dancing, chatting, and playing around with their friends. Some kids weren’t interested in anything so they stayed by themselves on their phones.

This was the second time I was going to attend this event, but I expected something different than the previous one. I reached my school just in time for the dance to start. Students were dressed up in a variety of styles. Some were in casual clothing, some boys were in blazers, and some girls wore dresses. After a while, I noticed that barely anyone danced when the music was playing. The only song that almost everybody danced to was the Cupid Shuffle, probably because it was the most familiar song for students. Some of the songs that the DJ played were unheard of. Something particularly stuck out for me and for many of my friends was the volume of the music. 

It wasn’t at a normal volume, it was blaring so loud that it was deafening. After the DJ finally turned down the volume because of many requests to do so, my friends and I joined the raffle games. There were four baskets filled to the brim with varieties of items that you can win with raffle tickets. There were many choices- movie snacks, fitness equipment, spa treatments, and gift-cards.

The only way to get raffle tickets is to win the games. The games included cup stacking, balancing candy on a skinny popsicle stick, and blowing a balloon and letting the air push a cup across a line. To win a basket, you have to put a ticket in a bowl for whatever basket you want. Each basket has a bowl in front of it to turn in your tickets.

I won seven raffle games and I put all of the tickets I earned into the movie basket, but sadly I didn’t win. I wasn’t too bummed about it but I noticed my friend dropped to his knees and suddenly yelled “NOOOOOO!” because he didn’t win any raffle.

Overall, I thought the event was a good experience for enjoying with friends. I thought it was fun mainly because my friends were there and there were also fun activities. Lesson learned – just don’t be bummed if you lose a raffle.