It is the season of prom, which means that promposals are just around the corner. What is a promposal you may ask? According to urbandictionary a promposal is a proposal by either a male or a female to a prospective date for prom.

Some people who do these can make them as simple as having a note or poster asking them to prom or an elaborate plan as having the school band playing a specific song and having a huge poster asking them to prom.

There are people who ask out their date in a fashion that basically involves the whole the school. Honestly, I find this in some way cute, but at the same time a little over the top. I get that you are trying to profess your love and admiration for the other person, but there are other ways to do it without involving a huge load of people.

Doing these promposals puts a lot of pressure on both of the people – the person who does the asking and the person who is being asked. The person that is doing the asking is essentially putting their reputation at stake since they’re facing the chance of getting rejected. Even the person that is being asked has pressure put on them since they are put on the spot to say yes. They really can’t say no since the other person went out of their own way to do this grand jesture and if they end up saying no they end up looking like a jerk. I don’t think that is really the case since most of these promposals are usually done by those who are either dating or really good friends and expect that they will be asked.

During my high school career I have witnessed my fair share of these. Some of these are well thought out by the exact detail. A promposal that occured recently was when Ethan Nagata who asked Nayelli Ocampo. He asked her in a way that involved rose petals sprinkled on the red carpet, multiple confetti cannons popped at the end, the song “Tale as Old as Time” sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend being played, and a sign that said “Every guy needs a little sunshine. I’d be happy if you were mine at prom. Yes?” with a single rose taped to it. “I’ve been planning for four years. Every year I added something special to the promposal. My plans were a success because everything went close to plan and she said yes,” said Nagata. Ocampo, the lucky girl who was promposed, did not suspect it, “I wasn’t expecting it. The promposal was cute, it made me feel special.”

My initial thought was “Aww. Que cute,” but it soon dawned on me all of the effort and planning that went behind it, such as making sure that you have the said location set up, everyone and anyone who is helping out knows what they are going to do at the exact moment, and most importantly that the person who is being asked doesn’t know about it. Honestly I don’t have that type of patience, creativity, and secrecy to be putting everything in order and making sure that the plan gets executed successfully, like I could barely plan my morning routine and follow it, so mad props.

Regardless of the grand gestures people call promposals they are a sweet way of showing one’s love and admiration for the other person. I give them credit for having the courage to ask and face the possibility of being rejected. At the same time, please don’t involve the whole school in your grand scheme, since it is quite over the top and it puts the person who is being asked in the spotlight to say yes, when sometimes they want to say no.

by Evelyn Luquin