High school: some loved it, others counted down the days until it was over. Either way, there’s one night that almost every teen is bound to remember. Prom is built up to be some sort of fairytale or even “the best night of your life.” One teenage girl definitely made the most of her prom night, but in a very unexpected way.
Priscilla Samey is a 17-year-old senior who recently blew up Twitter after posting a picture of herself with her prom date. Sounds normal, right? Well, in this case her date was a bit more paper-thin than a high school quarterback. Instead of going for a traditional guy clad in a suit and tie, Samey brought her Harvard acceptance letter with her as extra-special arm candy to the dance.
Samey earned a full ride to Harvard, along with being accepted to six other Ivy League schools. This girl is way too smart to fall for any high school boy’s games. When no one asked her to the prom, she didn’t sweat it, and took her acceptance letter instead. Validation from a man doesn’t even come close to the validation she received from Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, and of course, Harvard.
A photo she posted caught a lot of attention online with a biting, hilarious caption that reads: “Couldn’t find a man to accept me for prom so I took a college that did #Harvard2021 #prom2k17.” Several of her classmates responded positively with encouraging and funny messages. In a recent interview, she joked, “I took a date that was pretty low maintenance, so I didn’t have to pay for his dinner.”
As the daughter of two West African immigrants, Samey says that her heritage has shaped who she is today. She says sticking to her roots is something that has always helped her through life’s rough moments. When asked about what she wrote for her Common App essays, she replied, “I talked a lot about being low income and how that has affected me. It’s less of a direct impact of ‘I can’t afford this, I can’t afford that.’ It’s more that you feel like you don’t have a chance at a lot of these schools.” She also talked about her own personal journey of self-acceptance and of struggling at times with loving her identity. “I love all the languages I speak – my French culture and my West African culture, all parts of it. Accepting all that, that whole journey was something I spoke a lot about.”
Receiving full scholarships to all of her dream schools not only proves Samey’s intelligence and worth, but it is so rewarding to her and her family. Samey plans to major in political science with a pre-law track. After that, she plans on getting both her juris doctorate and a degree in business administration.
Luckily this Cinderella story includes more humor than drama, as this true-to-herself-teen attracts media attention for her charming tweet. Hopefully her prom night was just as magical as she is.
Featured Image by Varin on Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
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