As the final five minutes of eighth period tick by, the bell marks more than just the end of the school day in the weeks leading up to prom. At 2:10 the bell rings, seemingly saying, “ready, set, go!” for seniors to race off to the parking lot to witness or take part in “promposals.”
On a nice day, you can see four or five promposals happening at once. Boys are often asking girls with signs and flowers, and girls asking juniors with baked goods. All of them, of course, conclude by posing for the mandatory Facebook picture. If you miss the promposals after school, or even during lunch, it’s not an issue as the evidence will be uploaded minutes after.
The promposal trend dates a few years back at this point, and many seniors and some juniors experienced their first promposal in the weeks leading up to last year’s prom (or the year before). While it has been fun to witness some creative ideas over the years, is doing something big still worth it anymore?
At this point, I wonder when the trend will fade. For boys, many are running out of ideas, considering that Whitman students do the same sort of thing when asking dates to homecoming in the fall. By the spring, it gets a little old.
This prom season, the promposals also tended to slow down the planning process. April 24 is an unusually early prom date, leaving kids pressed for time to begin with. The need to do a grand gesture left some at a loss for what to do.
Most girls already know who is going to ask them beforehand, and most boys know what the answer will be. Asking someone to prom involves a lot of indirect communication; you don’t want to be surprised and you don’t want to ask someone who would rather say no.
Having said that, it almost feels like the promposals are just for show. Most couples know they are going together, but can’t plan anything yet with the elephant in the room.
The same goes for those with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Most couples can make plans before the asking, but they are still unable to avoid the task of asking their significant other in a special way.
One senior boy spent more than an hour setting up a poster with a friend, planning to kayak past with his girlfriend. When the kayak store turned out to be closed, Plan B did not go any better—when they walked by instead, the wind had torn part of the poster away and the couple lost their Facebook photo moment.
This senior boy was not the only one who felt asking was more of a struggle. When I helped a friend light candles that spelled out prom, an idea that seemed foolproof, the candles would not stay lit long enough for him to say “Will you go to prom with me?”
In these cases the couples are left slightly more disappointed without the perfect promposals that some of their friends managed. And if you already have a date why should you set yourself up for that?
While I spent most of the prom season not understanding the point of promposals, I see why it’s an unshakeable trend at Whitman. It’s a fun way for seniors to get creative and also ask a date to prom. It is definitely exciting when you realize someone else is putting in the effort to ask you to their one senior prom, and when you realize how happy you’re making someone with a grand gesture.
After the years of homecoming proposals, some may want to go all out with a promposal to their last school dance. Whether seniors decide to ask their date in private or public, casually or extravagantly, they do it. Don’t feel pressured to make it big unless you really want to. You’re in for a fun night no matter what.
