October 4, 2005 is a day that probably almost nobody remembers as special. But its impact on high school prom season is starting to hold out against the test of time. On that day MTV first aired the Our Last Prom episode of their popular series, Laguna Beach. During the first half of the episode, one after another the high school girls from Laguna Beach enjoyed the surprise of being asked to prom in unique and creative ways. In theory it should have been another fun episode for fans to watch. But instead it had a cascading effect. According to Unhooked author, Laura Sessions Stepp, high school girls suddenly had raised expectations about how they would be asked to prom. By the 2006 prom season some six months later, high school boys in upscale, middle class and even economically depressed communities were either going the extra mile or they were being rebuffed.
For high school boys willing to be creative and to shed all self-consciousness, there is a huge advantage and a real opportunity to outflank the competition. Even official boyfriends are held to the standard. Asking a girlfriend to Prom is only a notch below asking a girlfriend for marriage. For the high school guys who were already taxed with the idea of approaching a safe girl acquaintance to ask “Will you go to the Prom with me?” the odds of being rebuffed have gone up significantly.
Last year, the phenomenon made one daring high school senior a sudden national celebrity and proved how social networking tools can be used to catalyze a connection that only a few years prior would have been impossible. Connor Cordova of Littleton Colorado posted a humorous but very sincere video on YouTube in which he asked supermodel Arianny Celeste to be his Prom date. Technologies like Google Alerts ensured Arianny found out about the video. At first, the supermodel ignored the unknown teenager. But he followed up with other outreach efforts such as making T-shirts for him and his friends to wear to Arianny’s events. Eventually the two were trading texts via Twitter and in the end she was game to be his date for one special evening. The whole story included several exciting twists and turns before Connor had Arianny smiling and relaxing in his arms on the dance floor. For high school students, it re-ignited the expectation for guys to ask girls to Prom with style.
At this point, it is difficult to tell what is happening on a broad scale during this Prom season, but I have been thoroughly enjoying my peaks at Formspring to learn how the quasi-romantic ritual of Junior Senior Prom is playing out at Hermes High School. For example, one of Philip’s Sophomore Class girl-peers was asked to prom by a guy who brought a bouquet of flowers to school and asked her in front of everyone in her first period class. One of the Junior Class players on Philip’s lacrosse team rolled up a secret note and stuck it into a balloon before filling it with Helium to give to another one of Philip’s girl-peers during lunch break. She took the balloon with some suspicion and then noticed the note inside. A loud pop later the girl had the note in hand and had accepted his invitation. But my favorite story so far is what happened with Philip’s Junior Class peers Jocelyn and Conrad.
As noted in previous posts, teenagers are quite crafty in their use of Formspring. They sometimes post anonymous questions to themselves just so they can answer. I do not know who posted the question to Jocelyn but as soon as I read her answer, I knew Jocelyn was throwing down the proverbial gauntlet.
Formspring Question: Who are you going to Prom with? How did they ask you or you ask them?
Jocelyn’s Answer: I still don’t know! So far it has only been guys who say “wanna go to prom with me” so I have respectfully declined.
The above question and answer appeared on Formspring on Tuesday evening. By Thursday evening Jocelyn’s Formspring page revealed Conrad had asked her to the Prom and that she had accepted. For a few days what Conrad said and did remained a mystery, at least to those of us who only know what appears online. But even without the details, I was quietly celebrating Jocelyn’s and Conrad’s joint success. I would have never expected these two to pair off in any way but hindsight now reveals just how much the two have in common in terms of their humor and highly outgoing personalities. I had no doubt Conrad knew just how to give Jocelyn her dream prom-ask and was brave enough to provide it. Jocelyn’s Formspring post probably gave Conrad confidence she would not make a fool of him, provided he was willing to be daring. As it turned out, Conrad bought a large bouquet of flowers after school got out, drove to Jocelyn’s house, rang the doorbell with flowers in hand, and when she came to the door he asked her to the Prom.
For Jocelyn, Conrad and many other students at Hermes High School, Prom 2011 will be a fantastic memory. Along with it, many will also fondly look back upon the stylish manner in which each respective guy orchestrated a special invitation to win over his date for that one special high school evening. With Philip now just a Sophomore, I wish the same kinds of memories for him in 2012 and 2013.
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