The prom… I mean Spring Banquet.

So the prom (the Spring Banquet) is coming up. I’ve been to two; the difference between it and eating in the café is limited to these factors.

• Slightly better food.
• Served at your table.
• Different location.
• Better decor.
• More ties and cleavage.
• More people paired off than usual.
• Entertainment.
• You pay for it. (Gentlemen pay for two.)

And of course the difference between it and the high school prom is that no one is crowned; there’s no dancing; and fewer people will be having sex after it’s over.

The other high-school thing going on around this campus is the ASB elections. While I find it great fun to deface campaign flyers, you gotta realize that ultimately this comes down to a popularity contest. There are no issues. The ASB provides social functions and services; all it comes down to is who can provide more and better. Popularity is actually a really good way to determine who should win—if the candidate is a fun person, the candidate will likely come up with fun ideas for socials and practical services. Otherwise the people with any real authority around here are the Resident Advisors.

To date I have heard three people agonize over the people they’re going with to the “prom.” Not in picking them; that’s simple. It’s that the person that they’re going with considers this a little more than a friendly date… wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean? So since they don’t want this to happen, they’re freaking out a little.

I was in the same situation some years ago. My solution to the problem was to confront her with the problem. So we talked. It turned out that the reason she was gushing about going to the “prom” with me was because she didn’t want it to be known that she was unasked; that apparently she hadn’t been asked to such things before and was excited about it; and of course there’s that whole damned “ring by spring” pressure from her friends that made them speculate (and thus gossip got around) that there was something more to the date.

So that settled things… although not as effectively as I thought; she came away from it under the impression that I wanted more of a relationship. (Or so I discovered after the gossip got back to me.) Stupid me; I wasn’t thinking about how you should never start a conversation with a friend with “I want to talk about our relationship” unless you want her to get such an impression.

As I said, I’ve heard three people; and this in the past three days. Likely there are others. I recommend that they talk it through… or if you want to be immature about it, make a point of going on a date with someone else in the next few days.