School Dances.

The Before.
The best and worst nightmares of high school kids across the nation. Much like the terrifying team-picking at recess in elementary, high school dances cause the nerves and self doubt to arise in many teens. Thanks to the vast array of hormones being produced within our bodies, dances have the power to make or break our whole high school experience. However, when executed correctly, dances are able to stand out as the some of the best memories made in high school.
The couples are the ones who cause the most self-inflicted stress about ourselves. Questions such as, "Why am I not good enough?" "Is it because I don't look like her." emerge out of thin air. Or for others, the more fortunate, yet not better off stress related, worry about the wrong person asking them. "Does he think I like him?" "Will others think so?" "Oh no, I wanted someone else to ask but I can't say no." Coming from a female perspective, I believe that guys, in theory, are less stressed when asking the girl to the dance. There seem to be next to no circumstances where the answer is no. The again, as a sometimes over confident person, this may be inaccurate. Once the extravagant plan has been made on how you ask someone to a dance, which gets to be more and more elaborate every year, (mainly for social media purposes) the stress on attire emerges. If you are close with the individual you are going with, it would be easier for them. On the other hand, telling someone what you want them to wear is always difficult to word without coming across bossy. No matter the dance, Homecoming, WPA, Saddie Hawkins, Prom, the female typically determines the color and what clothing the male wears. Usually the female has her dress before she even gets asked, because the guys seem to wait longer and longer until they pop the question, and has already envisioned what she wants him to wear. This is where the conversation sometimes seems to be walking a thin line because, dress clothes are not cheap. The dance itself is a whole other cause to fret. Groups of friends get mixed up due to dates and different friends, and dinner reservations always need to be made before anyone knows who they are going with. The day of the dance you can find every spa in town full of girls in line to compete for the "prettiest" on of the night. In my opinion though "prettiest"is a relative term and you should be the best in your date's eyes regardless. The day continues and pictures start popping up on all instagram, snapchat, twitter, everywhere. Cute couple pictures mixed with the awkward "I barely even know this person I am still not sure why they asked me but I feel obligated to post a picture because we took them and I look really good" pictures which everyone has to like. Everything is seems to be a competition, but what in high school isn't?
JSL