Homecoming season is one of the most chaotic parts of the year. The rush to find the perfect outfit, planning your entire life around homecoming weekend events and spending hours taking photos in the heat before the dance are all traditions of these hectic few days. Although so much stress surrounds this day to make it the most fun, one would think that students would make it the perfect day for them, not anybody else. However, the pattern seems to be that students try to follow the exact structure of everyone else to fit in, even if it’s not what they truly want.

In recent years, it has become the trend to not only have a date for homecoming but also to have an elaborate, Instagram-worthy proposal. It’s a fun tradition that comes around before every dance that many students enjoy; however, there are plenty who are perfectly happy just going with their friends or even by themselves and feel pressured by the standard that has been set. Some students are left sad if they don’t get asked, nervous the ‘perfect date’ won’t say yes, or pressured to come up with a unique way to pop the question.

Yorba Linda HS Asks! (@ylhs.asks), an Instagram account where dance proposals are submitted to was created shortly before homecoming to showcase the different ways students have asked each other to the dance. A post is created for each proposal, and whichever post gets the most likes wins two free tickets to whichever dance is up next! On this account, there are many proposals, ranging from very complex to simple. The winning proposal, with 273 likes on Instagram, had a poster that said, “You’d be the GOAT if you go to homecoming with me,” and was proposed with two goats on a leash.

Over at the neighboring school, Esperanza, two students were even featured on Sports Center’s Instagram account for their relationship proposal. They received more than 2.5 million likes on the social media platform “TikTok.”

While it’s a fun experience to have an elaborate high school dance or relationship proposal, it’s perfectly okay not to want that for yourself. Aidan Mintzer (11) said it best, “I don’t think students should feel pressured to ask others to dances because the whole point of going to dances is to have fun. If that’s not what will make the dance more enjoyable for you, then don’t do it.”