> I dislike loud music and contemporary dance too, but the *main* reason I didn't go to my high school proms was that I was a socially inept, terminally bashful invertebrate of a guy who would never in a million years have asked the girl I had a crush on to be my date. So instead I stayed at home and felt sorry for myself for being such a loser.

I was kind of in the same boat, myself. I could think of only two reasons to go to my prom - to be with the two friends I had in my class, or to be with the girl I had a crush on. Neither was an option, since my two friends were not going, and the girl I had a crush on had no similar feelings toward me. So I didn't go.

This seemed to be a striking abomination to just about everyone else, though; even our class advisor kept trying to set me up with dates for the prom. I guess I had become kind of a "pillar of the class" by that point, and it shocked people to see me not being the focus of some major activity, much less not being there at all.

But, hey. I never regretted not going, even though my mother thought I should. ;-}