Ah, Prom season; the time of year where juniors and seniors find themselves in a tizzy trying to juggle school-work and the planning of the most important dance of their high school career. The preparation required for Prom is extensive. Girls must find the perfect dress months in advance, schedule hair and nail appointments, and shop for shoes and jewelry. Guys have to find tuxes, figure out transportation, and find out where to take their date after prom has ended. If there is so much that goes into planning for this spectacular dance, how come most people don’t have a date until the dance is almost near? It is often that girls will buy their dresses before anyone has even asked them to Prom. Is there an unspoken rule as to when someone should ask someone else to Prom? I asked seniors Jake Lysik and Meghan Wagner their thoughts on this predicament.

Jake Lysik said that an appropriate time to ask someone to Prom would probably be a month ahead, so for the May 2^nd dance, that means April. He believes (like most guys) that you shouldn’t ask someone to the dance too soon because if your plans fell through, you’d be without a date. He also added that girls “expect too much when it comes to asking.” This is an interesting comment, because social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter are plastered with pictures of the elaborate Prom-posals this time of year. Lysik says (like most guys) that girls really only want to be asked in a special way because they want to put it on Instagram for all to see. This expectation for asking tends put a lot of pressure on a guy, especially because Jake admits that “tradition is important” and a boy should definitely ask a girl to a dance. Like most guys, he wants to take the lead.

Meghan Wagner agreed with Jake that April is probably the best time to ask your date to Prom. She believes that it is important to know who you want to go with to a dance ahead of time, so that it’s easier to plan even if your date hasn’t officially asked you to go. She says that it is frustrating for any dance when a guy asks a girl too late, especially considering the preparation involved with Prom. On the subject of girls’ expectation to be asked to Prom in an overdone fashion, she stated, “Girls think that if guys don’t ask them in a certain way, they didn’t put enough time and effort into it.” Meghan said that if she didn’t get asked the dance in an embellished way, she wouldn’t get upset, but she wouldn’t want to feel left out if other people did get asked that way. Wagner agrees with Lysik saying that the tradition of guys asking girls to dances is important, thus putting stress on the fellas.

From what I gathered, it is important to be courteous of your date between both parties. According to guys, the ladies need to stop asking so much out of their dates when it comes to prom-posals. This added pressure to impress the person you’re asking to Prom (and their social media friends) can be stressful, especially if the person you’re asking turns you down. For girls, it is vital that boys ask them to Prom at least a month ahead of time, because girls want to have everything in order in time for the dance. But the most important thing to remember when it comes to Prom is that no matter who you go with, the goal is to have a good time and dance the night away.