In a few weeks my least favorite time of the year will finally arrive: Prom Season. Don't get me wrong I loved getting all dressed up and going to eat at a nice restaurant with a gorgeous date, but it's the lead up that I absolutely cannot stand.

In the past few years, a new trend I hate seeing has started. Guys have to have these big, elaborate invitations for the girl they want to ask to Prom. I have a few questions about this. First, who started this trend, and why is it still a thing? Girls do deserve to feel important and wanted, but this has now become a huge competition to see who can come up with the most elaborate way to be "prom-posed" to. Guys are faced with a huge task of trying to find a new and innovative way of making a proposal to a girl for ONE night that may or may not be one to remember.

I first noticed this trend when I was a freshmen in high school. I saw all of these big fancy roses, teddy bears, and signs with just one simple word on in, "Prom?" Now, me being the freshmen I was thought this was clever and unique, but I thought this was really only reserved for girls of high status, such as the principal's daughter, the mayor's daughter, the homecoming queen, and girls of that nature. I didn't expect it to get so out of hand. Today I see girls who get extremely angry if a guy asks her to Prom and doesn't at the least have flowers, a card, and a teddy bear waiting. This is part of how out of hand this trend is growing. The growing expectation is for guys to pocket hundreds of dollars just to ask a girl to Prom while seemingly forgetting the cost of dinner, the tux, and then the limo and whatever else minimal monetary task has to be handled before the day arrives. As the brother of 4 sisters, believe me I KNOW how daunting and expensive it is for girls to prepare for prom, but I don't think it's appropriate to expect the world of a high school boy who still has to ask for permission to leave his home after 10 o'clock.

All promposals do are set up impossible expectations for our girls. Guys who lack the creative ability or means to develop such an amazing and elaborate invitations seem second tier in comparison to their more well-abled counterparts. Whatever happened to the simple gestures of asking a girl directly did she want to go to Prom without all the added extravagance? For the guys buying their dates puppies, fancy diamond rings, the newest Nike gear, or writing special songs on their guitar, renting out DisneyWorld, and paying hundreds of dollars just so you can have your promposal plastered on the screen of Wrigley Field, I ask of you for the sake of the entire human race please stop. I think these are incredibly sweet gestures, and think that each girl you're asking is very well-deserving of whatever you doing, but you're making it that much harder for every other guy just wanting to have a good night. Most people will only see this as a way of you flaunting your wealth, not for your date, but for others to see.

Prom is supposed to be one of the most magical and unforgettable nights of your life, and I promise you if I could go back and do it all again I would; however Prom isn't supposed to be about taking the best picture for of your proposal so you can post it on Instagram with the clever and witty caption just so you now have set a standard for other girls to try and compete with and now you have added to your name. PROM IS ABOUT HAVING FUN NOT HAVING A NICE CAPTION FOR A PRE-DANCE PICTURE! To all the girls, just waiting for their perfect promposal, I ask of you to be humble! There are enough pressures in high school already, and getting asked to a dance shouldn't be one of them. Girls who don't get asked to Prom feel a lot worse about themselves when they see a guy go through so much effort for you when a guy won't even ask them. I know first hand that Prom can be stressful, and that if you don't get the Promposal just right you've basically wasted your time. That's why I can't wait for the day when Promposals are a thing of the past, and normal people can go to Prom together without the pressures of the perfect Instagram caption.

I used to think that the perfect promposal was an essential part of the Prom process, but now, I think it's completely outdated. I want girls and guys both to stop focussing on the the promposal part of the experience and more on having fun with the people you're around! Live in the moment you're in, and not for the moment everyone will forget down the road; when it's all said and done and you look back on it you won't remember the proposal or the process, but the memories made on a night like no other!