The end of the year is quickly approaching, and for many seniors this means preparing for graduation, banquets and another highly anticipated event: Prom.  As if finding a date is not hard enough, how they will ask or be asked to Prom is something that concerns most seniors. 

 Many senior girls believe that how they are asked is an important part of the Prom experience.  However, simply asking someone to go to Prom is not always considered enough.  It is almost expected that a girl will be asked in a creative way that involves a lot of thinking and planning.

 “The best way is to do something that surprises them or do something that they would never expect,” senior Petey Liakakis said. 

 Cute ways of asking someone to Prom may include making signs, surprising them during class, using food or making other objects such as a t-shirt. It is also thoughtful to decorate a person’s car, room or driveway. What defines thoughtful, however, depends on the girl.

 According to senior Paige Hubberman, a cute way to ask a girl is by decorating her room.  Senior Danielle Mandir, however, believes the best way to ask a girl to Prom is by using food. 

 “There is no way a girl can say no to that,” Mandir said.

 Many senior boys also agree that it is important to ask a girl to Prom in a thoughtful way.

 “It’s good to do something outside of the box, something you can never picture yourself doing,” senior Areya Tabatabai said. 

 Although many creative ways exist to ask someone to be his or her Prom date, students agree that certain ways should be avoided.  Girls generally dislike being asked through a friend or online through AIM or Facebook. 

 “The worst way to ask a girl is through a text,” senior Kevin Yu said.  “The next worst way is to ask like you don’t care.”

 Asking a person to Prom through something impersonal like a text could increase the likeliness of a potential Prom date to say no.  To avoid being turned down, thought should be put into the manner in which the date will be asked.  

 “Asking through a parent, teacher, or friend is a bad idea,” senior Johanna Klinman said. 

 Although it may be a nerve-racking experience, the person asking should make it personal.  The added creativity and thoughtfulness may increase the chances of the potential date to say yes. 

Prom is often the climax of a student’s high school experience, and the night is supposed to be one that seniors will never forget. However, there are many things that need to happen before the event, and how to do them can get pretty confusing.

 When it comes to prom dates, three classifications exist: going as friends, going as dates or going as a couple.  One of the biggest dilemmas surrounding Prom is the issue of who pays for what. The night can end up being pretty costly, so there are mixed opinions about what the girl should and should not pay for. Much of it depends on which of the classifications the date falls in to.

“As friends I would probably pay for the ticket and that’s it,” senior Josh Rosefelt said. “If we were going as a date I would probably pay for everything.”

It is almost an unspoken rule that if two people are going as friends, the boy will not be expected to cover all of the costs of his date.

“My date and I are going as friends, so I don’t expect him to pay for anything,” sophomore Dani Green said.

Many people at CHS date students who are not in their same grade. However Prom is a senior event and when the boy is not in the senior class it becomes unclear who should ask who to the dance. On one side, it is not the boy’s Prom. But on the other hand, girls generally want to be asked by a guy.

According to junior Marco Hamins-Puertolas, he asked his senior date to Prom because her friends told him to, but he would not have found it weird if she had asked him.

Being in a relationship also puts more pressure on the boyfriend to ask his girlfriend to the dance in a cute way. The boyfriend is expected to use this opportunity to make a special romantic gesture as a way to show his girlfriend how much he cares about her.

“I think that the girlfriend expects more because they’re dating, but the guy knows that he needs to make it big so it’s not bad pressure, it’s just a higher expectation,” senior Janey Asher said. 

Whether in a relationship or not, it is important that guys do not wait too long to ask a girl to Prom. Many think that after a certain point, it is too late to try to ask somebody.

“You need to ask by two weeks before because it’s a lot to plan,” senior Emily Heger said.

Unfortunately, there is no set day that boys should begin to ask girls to be their date, so nobody really knows when to ask. People seem to wait for the first person to be asked until they ask their date, so the timing is in the hands of whichever boy decides to step up to the plate first.

According to senior Katlyn Tovar, who was one of the first few girls to be asked to Prom, her being asked sparked everyone else to ask their date because once the first person is asked, all of the guys feel as if they need to hurry up. They think that the person they want to take will get asked by someone else.

Once you get past the asking and the paying, students still have to worry about how to split into groups, what to wear, who will host pictures and who will host the after party—none of which are an easy tasks.

“Planning for Prom can be really stressful but if everything works out then it will be worth it,” senior Allison Furfine said.