A topic about Prom. Yay!...?

So, April and I decided to create an actual list of future topics for a while now, so we have an actual topic that can be specified:

Prom: Date for the sake of a date? What about going as friends? Asking to prom with intention of going out later? (As in, "will you go to prom with me? By that I mean I like you")

So, this topic is an interesting one. Prom is one of those things that it seems everyone is thinking about this time of year. But, what is prom really? Is it just another dance, except you have to get extra dressed up? Or is it something special where you should ask the love of your life to?

I guess that isn’t really addressing the question, but I think it ties into it. I think that some of the way that you view what prom is can change what you think of taking a date to prom. If you feel that prom is something very special, and all that jazz, maybe asking someone to prom, or taking someone to prom has that much more connection for you than for you than for someone who feels that prom is just another dance and are just taking a date as a friend.

But then comes the question, can it really be just defined by these two polar opposites. Where one side has to think that asking someone to prom is basically telling them you like them and then other side believes that going to prom as just friends is perfectly normal, and maybe even better.

Of course it can’t be that simple, we as humans have way too many emotions and such things that keep us from being that logical about such things as prom. I guess then we should look as what I believe. What I think about the whole situation; because that is where I’m going to be able to provide input, whereas if I just talk in the abstract it will be just that, abstract and possibly boring or uninformative.

So, I can see both arguments being made. That prom is a dance where you should be asking someone you like as opposed to just going as friends with someone. It has a connotation as being a “special night” whatever that may mean, depending on your idea of special and your preferred movie dealing with high school situations. But, one concurrent theme in these stereotypes is that prom is special and to make it perfect you have to take your crush and you two have to fall in love that night. Of course, now I’m sounding like April after she’s watched a particularly sappy movie. But, there is a valid point, the conventional wisdom that prom is a special night can possibly help to advance you toward a goal of getting closer to the person you like.

Of course, with all of this complicated liking the person you’re going to prom with comes the possibility that you stop liking them, or that they don’t like you and that the rest of the night becomes seriously awkward, or something to that effect. Which could be one of the reasons for the cornucopia of teenage drinking that occurs at prom, or before prom, or after prom. But, I digress. Wouldn’t this be able to be very easily solved by just taking someone who is your friend to prom? You have no expectations; you can just have a good time. You know you will with them, you’re good friends. And this can make the night both less “special” and more fun. Now, I’m again technically speaking in the abstract since I haven’t been to prom yet, but I think that I’m judging the situation in a way that is both logical and fair.

So, maybe one way to look at the situation is how you want to place your bet. One the one hand, the date that you take could be someone who you like and have intentions of “making a move” on during the night, whatever that may mean to you; or your date could be a good friend who you’ll have a good time with no matter what. On the one hand you could be utterly ruined in both any sort of friendship with the person as well as chance with them, and it could ruin both of your prom’s; on the other hand you could not have the chance, the easy chance, to make yourself known to the other person and to get a favorable outcome.

So, it’s the gamble between the risk and the safe bet.