Every year across the United States, high schools hold their annual prom dance. With this comes prom royalty. A prom king and queen are nominated, and at Powell High School, a prom prince and princess are also nominated.

The prom king and queen are seniors, while the prince and princess are juniors. This year, prom king was Paul Cox, and queen was Kenna Cannon, while prom prince was Dawson George, and princess was Kyra Morrow.

“I was pretty surprised to win,” senior Paul Cox said. “I’m usually in the running for these kinds of things, but I haven’t been voted for anything since sophomore year when I was the homecoming attendant.”

In the same way, Kyra Morrow had an assumption about whether she would have been nominated as princess. 

“When I got into the top five, I was shocked,” junior Kyra Morrow said. “I just wasn’t expecting it. I’ve never been voted on those types of things. So that was interesting.”

After prom royalty gets announced, the people who were nominated walk up on stage and take  a picture together.

“I was definitely really excited that I was voted prom queen,” senior McKenna Cannon said. “Especially since there were so many other amazing girls that 100% deserved it, too.”

As students have had different experiences with these voted on royalties, people are usually surprised that they did get nominated.

“I did not see it coming,” junior Dawson George said. “I knew I made the top five, but I didn’t think I would actually get it.”

In addition to this, prom royalty is chosen by everyone’s name being put into a Google form for people to vote for five girls and boys. Then from there, the top five girls and boys who were voted on get put into another Google form where they get voted on again. The boy and girl who got the most votes would get to be a part of prom royalty.

“I had a lot of people telling me that they had voted for me, and I thought they were just being nice,” Morrow said, “So when I got called up, it was definitely a surprise, but it was also kind of sweet that everybody wanted to vote for me.”

With all of this, the people who got royalty had a favorite part of their prom night experience.

“Honestly, just getting to see everybody and talking to everybody and seeing how happy they were,” Morrow said. “And how excited they were and how much fun they were able to have.”

While some people may say that prom night is an experience that they will never forget, it is a night when people can relax and have a fun time with their friends.  

 “I went with my girlfriend Jenessa Polson and we both had a great time together,” Cox, who recently starred in the spring musical with Polson, said. “It’s a great de-stressor since this last month has been difficult with all the things going on.”

As the school year comes to an end, prom is one of the last events that students get to enjoy before going on summer break and not being at school for a couple of months.  

“The best part about prom night was having one last night to take it all in with my surrounding classmates,” Cannon said. “We all knew it was going to be one of the last moments we’d all have together.”