I, like many other upperclassmen at M-A, recently asked my date to Prom. I repeatedly came up with ideas I imagined would be creative and fun, only to find out from my potential date’s girlfriends that they were, in fact, not very creative at all. I was consoled by my male counterparts, all of whom seemed to be facing the same difficulties as I was. Finally, with the days left to ask flying by, I had my proposal idea. On a Friday night I walked into The Mix, a new frozen yogurt store in Menlo Park, with ‘Prom?’ written in neat, black, block letters on a one-dollar bill, with the intent of giving it to her as she rang up my order. Vanessa came over; I tried to hide both the dollar and my teenage apprehension. Thankfully, all went according to plan. I surprised Vanessa with the dollar, she said yes, and I, somehow, have a date for Prom.

And I’m not the only one. Prom is here and the stress of finding a date has passed. I managed to find a date, and while I considered my prom proposal fairly clever, I’ve been far outdone by countless other M-A upperclassmen. Unfortunately, I can only cover a few of the best, but hopefully I can do those justice.

One such standout is senior Audrey Bullwinkel’s proposal to fellow senior Travis Price. With arduous and meticulous effort, Audrey placed hundreds of sticky notes onto Travis’ car, with a single pink one in the center of the windshield inviting him to Prom with her.

On the slightly less romantic side is the proposal Alec Van Stone made to journalism’s very own Regina Mullen. The scene is set with the pair hanging out, watching a movie together one night at Regina’s house. It was around one in the morning, right after Regina had fallen asleep, when she was awoken by Alec shaking her back and forth to get her attention.

“Regiiiiiiiiiina,” Alec muttered amorously, as one would at that hour.

“Whhhatttt,” Regina replied with equal affection for a guy she would most likely refer to as ‘dude’ on most occasions.

“Go to Prom with me,” he then said, channeling the romantic talent of Edward Cullen.

“Fiiiiiine,” she replied before immediately slipping back into slumber, clearly so impressed by Alec’s approach that she could only contain her excitement by sleeping.

Another proposal comes straight from F-10. Tests are always stressful, but even more so when your dignity is on the line and your unsuspecting prom date sits 10 feet away. That was exactly the case when Senior Andy Brodbeck asked Junior Taylor Gananian by writing a special question on her Human Biology test. The question, handwritten before problem number one, asked “will you go to prom with Andy?” Andy, however, was not up for taking any unnecessary chances, and the four multiple-choice answers available all read “yes.” With no other options presented, Taylor put her grade first.

Winning the award for best 80s movie allusion is Evan Weiner, who surprised Diane Seely by showing up outside her window late at night holding a boom-box over his head, mirroring John Cusack from the movie Say Anything. This might underwhelm some, but in truth no proposal can be as romantic as a vintage pop culture reference. Besides, he wore a tie, and girls dig ties.