feature,
Serenading
With food
Using your own creativity!
Feature: A PROMising Night.
Imagine your schoolmates, stress-free in their tailored suits and extravagant gowns dancing through the night. A rock band lively plays as people eat from the all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s that time of the year again, a very formal event approaches and it’s called Prom.
Prom, also known as Promenade. It is a formal dance which started in the 19th century of American universities and colleges wherein graduating students, donning their formal attire, celebrate in a formal dance for their upcoming graduation. In the 1940s, however, younger Americans requested that proms be held for them. Finally, when the 1950s came, the post-cold war economy allowed American high schools to hold proms. Today, proms are still celebrated and are usually held in the high schools' gymnasiums, if not hotels or country clubs.
Teenage couples slow dance in their formal attire while a pianist plays for them during their prom in the 1940s. Retrieved from: https://www.vintag.es/2016/12/pictures-of-high-school-proms-in-1940s.html
Almost all high schools in the whole world have proms as a tradition except for certain countries. One example is in India where they don't have proms due to the conservatism of their culture. However, Indians do have a similar annual social gathering called "Dandiya Raas Night" in high schools and colleges where, instead of formal attires, students wear traditional Indian clothes and dance more lively than those usually done in American proms.
Students in their traditional Indian attires dancing during Dandiya Raas Night. Retrieved from: https://www.whatsuplife.in/kolkata/blog/dandiya-raas-nights-garba-events-kolkata/
Unlike Indian high schools, the UPIS Prom follows the American traditions. The program consists of formal slow dances and the Cotillion, and different performances from students. Prom in UPIS used to be held in February. However, due to the calendar shift, which moved the start of the school year from August to June, and the shift of the UPIS Days from December to February, proms are now held during the month of April.
Students of UPIS Batch 2020 and Batch 2021 socialize during last year's prom themed "Grandeur" at the Silver Lotus Hotel. Photo taken by James Tolosa.
In UPIS, the event is only for Grade 9 and 10 students and outsiders are not allowed. This is because the main objective of prom is for the two batches to be able to bond with each other.
Another feature of UPIS Prom is the freedom to have a prom date. This allows the students to prompose to or ask another student to be their date for the prom.
Promposals are the source of news and buzz in the days and weeks leading up to prom. You can usually tell a promposal taking place by sudden squeals of joy or noisy teasing in the canteen or the ramp area. People think it’s an easy thing to do. In fact, students usually think that the larger the audience, the higher the chances of getting a "yes". However, this is a questionable way to ask because the “yes” garnered from a public promposal could have been caused by public pressure.
If you want to enjoy a PROMising night with your prom date, here are some suggestions for you. We’ve listed down some of the few ways people have done a creative and cute promposal as alternatives to the public promposal.
Serenading
An acoustic guitar is being played in a dark room. Retrieved from: https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/serenade/
If you don’t want to be SINGle in the upcoming prom, how about SING a song to your desired promdate. Serenading would be an easy way for you to prompose. But you must remember, your promposal aims to get the attention of one person, not the whole class or the whole school. So instead of doing this outdoors, do this privately.
On the other hand, even if you’re not musically inclined, you can still make this work! By serenading, you're showing how much you're willing to go past your limits to convince your prom date. Just remember that you are not serenading to get an audience, but to get the person you like to spend prom night with you.
With food
A promposal being done by giving a burger with the question "prom?" written inside the box. Retrieved from: https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/serenade/
When it comes to food, most people would not hesitate to accept. However, if they see the word 'prom' first, before they realize that the food is being given to them, chances are that they might take a minute before they decide. So if you choose this option, try to hide the purpose of giving food to your hopefully soon-to-be prom date and surprise them first. Also, it'll have a higher success rate if you cooked the food yourself.
A promposal is being done with the essence of baseball, lights, and sweets. Retrieved from: https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/serenade/
Unlike the first two ideas, crafts might make your promposal more memorable to whoever you're asking to prom. Crafts are not edible unlike food and it doesn't last for only two to three minutes unlike serenading. Other than that, crafts really show how much time and effort you're willing to give just to get the "Yes" from the person you're promposing to.
These promposals are just three in a million ways to prompose, the creativity of it varies from person to person, there is no secret to that. Therefore, choose the way that represents you the most and remember that the attention you are seeking is from a person, not from a crowd.
Wrapping it all up, prom has a come a long way since the 1940s and since it’s coming up fast, make sure you’re ready. Aim to joyfully spend the night with people whom you are closest with or you want to be close with. After all, it only happens twice in your UPIS high school life, so make the most of it! //by Ned Pucyutan
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