prom (and graduation)

We're in the home stretch of senior year and it's crazy to think that the four years of high school that I dreaded as a middle schooler would now be over in a matter of 3 months. But I guess the main thing that I wanted to discuss was prom in general. It's the biggest dance you could attend as a high schooler and also the most expensive. It's where girls spend hundreds of dollars just for a dress that they'll wear for a night. It's where guys spend hundreds of dollars for their tux rentals and even paying for prom tickets. It's crazy to think that people can spend up to a thousand dollars just on one night. It's even crazier that all that money could be going into the college debt students are gonna be in within 4 months of prom. So why does prom have to be so expensive? I do understand that it's a tradition and people have been doing it for years but that's a lot of money going towards one night. But at the same time, I'll have to do it soon so oh whale.