Promposals
It’s that time of year when high-schoolers are obsessively getting ready for prom while I sigh and wish I could go back in time to re-live those years. I attended my prom and was one of “those girls” who really looked forward to it. I searched for the perfect dress, made sure I was tan and bought every prom magazine I could get my hands on. High school in general was really fun for me, so it’s not surprising that I thoroughly enjoyed my prom (I was prom queen 2006, afterall!) But one aspect that seems to be taking over the internet that I apparently missed out on was the “promposal”.
What’s a promposal, you ask? It’s like a proposal for marriage, except you’re asking someone to be your prom date. The ridiculous name isn’t even half of it- there’s a trending hashtag on Twitter chronicling the over-the-top ways 16-year-old boys are asking their classmates to prom.
Maybe it’s just me, but this was definitely NOT a thing when I was in school. Couples who were dating didn’t even bother asking their significant other to prom since it was a given. If you liked someone, you had a friend-of-a-friend subtly hint that you two should go to prom together. And if you were single, like I was, you might even- GASP- ask a boy yourself to go simply as friends. I don’t have any elaborate stories about boys asking me to dances (it was pretty much just them straight-forwardly asking me), but I don’t think I really would want to have any. A marriage proposal? Sure. But it seems silly and a little too grown up for 17-year-olds.
A prom date is just that- someone to take photos with, dance with occasionally, split the cost of a limo with, etc. It’s not this elaborate thing that deserves a proposal with roses, buying your date a puppy or spray-painting her lawn with the word “PROM?” Who does that!?
All these promposal articles I’ve seen on sites like the Huffington Post and Jezebel shed some light on this crazy and expensive phenomenon, if you’ll even call it that. It’s like everyone has to out-do the others, and whoever has the most elaborate story wins. But what are they really winning?
Why are teens so eager to grow up these days? Your prom isn’t your wedding. You will probably never speak to your prom date 10 years down the road. I was too busy having fun with friends at my prom to even care about the drama of who asked who to prom and what elaborate promposals there were. What about you?
For prom I cared about 2 things, my dress and to party with my friends.
Same! I lovedddd shopping for my dress
Haha, this was always so strange to me. I thought it was just something they did in Cali (ala Laguna Beach). My best friend though told me it was a popular thing to do at her high school. We did no such thing. In fact, I was lucky the guy I used to date really liked me (before we started dating) otherwise I wouldn’t have even had a date to my junior prom lol!
haha I think of Laguna Beach, too
This is really crazy! These promposals are more elaborate than my actual marriage proposal!
That’s another one where people go overboard…
I just want to gag. Honestly, I lived in such a crazy conservative home that I wasn’t even allowed to freaking go to prom!
What. The. Hell!? You better go all out at your wedding
No one asked people in crazy ways at my school, but my fiance says people went really crazy at his. I know he didn’t go too over the top but I’m pretty sure he put on a suit and brought the girl roses, and that was 10 years ago.
Oh dangggg
That is absurd!!!! We didn’t do anything like that for Prom. We did have a big dance where the girls asked the guys and some went ALL out, but not with kittens and skywriting. hahah xo
That part is normal to me!
It’s just such a thing now that everything is bigger and better. It’s crazy!!! The guy who asked me to prom asked me as we were walking past each other in the HS hallway in between classes. Hahah!!!
Same, girl same. At our lockers.
Some of them are a bit intense, but at my school you only had prom your senior year so prom was a big deal. My boyfriend ‘promposed’ to me over the radio, he requested a song for me and the dj said that it was requested by him to ask me to prom. I thought it was sweet and its a great memory! People just notice them now because of Instagram and hashtags but I think its always been a thing…or at least at my highschool it was!
Prom was a big deal for us, too, we just didn’t spend hundreds on elaborate ways to ask. That’s sweet that your BF asked you that way!
I hate the promposals. Some of them are bigger than marriage proposals! And I think it (along with chick flicks) creates this unrealistic expectation that men should be doing grand gestures for us, which is totally unhealthy.
Yes, your last point is excellent
You have got to be kidding me!! This is insane…I am so far out of the loop and didn’t even know this was becoming a big deal…it’s PROM, kids….PROM!
You’ll know soon enough when your girls are ready for prom!
promposals are out of control!! i remember a boy wrote “prom?” with a car marker on my windshield and i was MORTIFIED! i remember thinking that was over the top haha
haha! You were a recipient of the promposal!
omg that’s ridiculous. i had no such prom experience 10/11 years ago, haha! but the kitten is really cute 🙂
We luckily didn’t have anything like this either at my high school. The first time I’d even heard of elaborate prom schemes was on Laguna Beach – the whole thing is so silly!
haha that show made prom seem so much more of an “event” than it really is