As prom season approaches, every high school girl is dreaming of the special guy who's going to sweep her off of her feet with the most romantic..."promposal." This new phenomenon is sweeping across the U.S. as the use of social media puts more pressure on guys to come up with the most elaborate way to ask a girl to prom. They're out purchasing gifts, making signs, and generally going above and beyond for exactly one night. My personal favorite: a tattoo on a guy's side that wrote: "Prom?" I hope that's temporary, because otherwise "Prom?" will be tattooed on this guy's side forever, an unanswered question. Maybe he should get "yes" or "nah, bro" tattooed underneath, just for some closure. But in all seriousness, what is the point of this?

The way my best friend got asked to prom was with a volleyball that read, "I would dig it if you went to prom with me" or something along those lines. Cute and simple. But necessary? No. She would have said yes if he'd just asked her without any supplement. It was a sweet gesture but still doesn't make any sense to me. Why would anyone go through that kind of effort for one night? Seeing it from the guy's perspective, it's probably in hopes that they'll get laid. I'm just being honest here; it's on every guy's mind 24/7. If you know a guy who wasn't at least hoping for the outcome a little bit, let me know. I'll be vaguely impressed but mostly just confused.

Promposals have turned into such a big deal for no reason, which is strange to me. Maybe it's just because I never saw the importance of prom. I went to three homecomings, which was enough for me. In fact, I probably could have missed out on two of them and been fine, but I like getting dressed up. Maybe I would have been more excited had I ever been asked, but I wasn't. Being asked to prom is, I assume, one of the most exciting parts. The other would be the dress shopping, but looking back on it now, what is the point of spending money on a dress that you'll only wear once, when you could just wear your favorite pair of jeans and a tee shirt to your local sports bar and eat cheese fries instead? That's what I should have done.

Some promposals get taken way out of hand. I know we live in an over-the-top age (shows like The Bachelor, Survivor, and Naked and Afraid are still going strong), and not to put that down, but it is evident in promposals that things need to be taken to the extreme or they lose their value. Hence the "Prom?" tattoo pictured above. I would have died if I was that girl, not from happiness, but from embarrassment. I hope that guy is/was her boyfriend, because otherwise that's insanely creepy. Some promposals are also ridiculously stupid, such as "I'll be your Gatsby, will you be my Daisy?" I don't think this boy read the book, or else he would know that Daisy was married and she and Gatsby were having an adulterous affair. I don't think that's the vibe anyone want to give off in a promposal, unless they're asking a a girl who already has a boyfriend. If so, then it's properly fitting.

Overall, while I think that, at a bigger high school than I went to, prom might be a right of passage, I don't think these excessive, over-the-top promposals are necessary. They're cute and flattering if done right, but I've seen so many that were just outrageous. Not only do promposals put pressure on the guy to do something amazing, it puts pressure on the girl to say "yes" even if she's being asked by a boy she barely knows. It's much less scary to say no to a guy who has just flat-out asked you than a guy who went through a bunch of trouble and spent money to ask you. It should be assumed that couples will go together, and unless really into big, romantic gestures, the guy shouldn't feel like he has to ask in a grand way. To me, promposals are unnecessary and more trouble than they're worth.