A five-part explanation on why promposals are unnecessary

    Promposal: a word that shows no results when searched in the Merriam-Webster dictionary because it’s not a real word. This phenomena only started occurring in the past few years.

    So what is a promposal? It’s a way to ask someone to go to prom with you, usually publicly, creatively and sometimes as a surprise. We’ve all seen them while scrolling through our newsfeeds: a couple posing happily with the words “Will you go to prom with me?” spelled out in chalk in the background or on a poster board. Most people would think this is a cute, fun thing, but after seeing so many of these, I hate it.

   There is some logic behind my hatred for promposals.

Problem One

    Everything is so unoriginal. Of course, the very first promposals were new and exciting. But that was years ago. Now, a lot of what I see is the same: poster boards with candy taped to it, giant letters spelled out in chalk, candles placed in a room spelling out “Prom?” and even scavenger hunts created to lead the girl to the guy waiting with a poster.

    I often overhear people talking to their friends about what they should do, and they always end up googling ideas rather than coming up with something on their own. It’s unthoughtful, unauthentic and done for the wrong reasons. Which leads me to my next problem…

Problem Two

    The act of promposing has just become one giant competition. Whoever has the biggest idea or cutest concept has the best date. Whoever can get the most likes on the picture they post wins. Whoever gets asked in front of the most people (i.e. in the cafeteria or at a basketball game during half time) had the most successful promposal. No one seems to be doing it because they want to ask someone in a nice way, but only because they want it to get the most attention.

Problem Three

    Couples who are dating and already planning on going to prom together still are expected by their peers to have one of them ask the other in an extravagant way. This is very unnecessary. If you are in a relationship, isn’t it understood that you would go together? But since so many people are doing it, it seems almost required for a boyfriend to have a promposal in store for their girlfriend or vice versa. Everything else aside, promposals are only necessary when two people are not planning to go to the dance together. If you’re already together, there’s no surprise.

Problem Four

    I really hate the role that the poster plays. Everyone is writing the question down and making the other person read it—why can’t they just ask the question out loud? It loses its touch. It’s not romantic or meaningful at all. This is a bigger problem in itself, relationships are evolving from what they used to be. The poster seems like a lazy thing to do.

Problem Five

    Such high expectations are pushing each promposal to be bigger and better. If a couple has been dating for a few years and has been to prom or homecoming (because homecoming has it’s own variation of the promposal, just on a smaller scale) more than once together, then each promposal is expected to be better than the last. If you go big, and all of your creative energy was put into the first time, what more is there to do? And if each couple tries to have the best promposal, how far are students willing to go? Pretty soon the next best promposal will just be an engagement, a real proposal.

    Prom is supposed to be a fun night, and the fun shouldn’t be taken away from the stress of a promposal idea. Students should understand that that is not what’s important. What’s important is spending the night all dolled up, having fun with your best friends.