On Saturday, December 10th, BSM sophomores, juniors and seniors had the opportunity to attend BSM’s winter formal: Holiday Ball. In the past, BSM’s dances have not always had the best reputation. Many students were hesitant to attend because of this. In the end, students had mixed emotions about the dance.

It was many students’ first time so they didn’t know what to expect. Learning Support Specialist Katherine Johnson was able to go around and take professional pictures of students so they would be able to remember their night. “It was my first holiday ball and I liked the venue. There was someone going around taking professional photos and those are super cute,” junior Julia Lealos said.

Although Lealos’ overall experience was positive, there were some things that she did not love as much. “The lighting was terrible. The DJ was not that good and I don’t know how I feel [about] the songs that were playing. They were kind of bad, especially after the first half hour,” Lealos said.

There was someone going around taking professional photos and those are super cute. Seniors were excited to finally attend Holiday Ball as the oldest in the school. They felt more comfortable since there were no upperclassmen to be intimidated by. “I really liked it. I really liked being a senior there because it just felt better. This one was way better, because last year it was just really awkward and the dancing was way more fun this year,” senior Natalie Rein said.

Some people did not have as good of a time especially if they didn’t have a lot of close friends there with them. “It only had a couple of friends there. I also didn’t like the food at all. It was really bad,” junior Dylan Remjeske said.

Despite his unpleasant experience, Remjeske still felt this year was an improvement from last. “I liked this year’s dance better because last year was bad. The food was a little better this year and there was no mosh pit last year. I liked the mosh pit this year,” Remjeske said.

One thing that BSM dances are infamously known for, are their rules about leaving. Normally administration assigns a time that students have to stay at the dance until before they are able to leave. Once students leave, they are not able to reenter the dance. “I didn’t like that you couldn’t leave until nine. I was definitely counting down the clock until nine because that’s when we could leave. I don’t know if anyone stayed super late [after that],” Lealos said.

In past years, the food served to students at Holiday Ball was hit or miss. They normally serve some sort of pasta and salad and this year they decided to change to a taco bar. Many students ended up being a fan of the switch “I was disappointed when I heard it was tacos and not pasta and a salad like usual. But actually the taco bar was fire. It was really good,” Rein said.