A bowling alley, Steak ‘n Shake, Downtown Indianapolis. While these places may have little to do with each other to some, they are all places that junior Kierra Knight had to visit before junior Eric Fisher asked her to be his prom date.

Prom is one of the biggest events for students at SHS, and the process of proposing, or “promposing,” has become an event in and of itself. Some SHS students take part in creating these extravagant promposals, while others still decide to keep it casual.

For his promposal, Fisher created a scavenger hunt that had Knight venturing around the city. After receiving all of the clues, she arrived downtown to see Fisher holding a sign and a speaker playing SONG by Ed Sheeran. He says it took him over a year to put together, and included the help of many different friends and family.

“It was a process,” Fisher said. “We were thinking about it for a long time trying to figure out how we were going to do it.”

The hunt started with Knight talking to her grandparents on Facetime in Washington, who gave her clues that led to different destinations around the city. Once she eventually reached downtown, Fisher was holding up a sign asking her to prom.

Knight says that when she started the scavenger hunt she did not know anything about Fisher’s plan. After going through a few of the clues, though, she says she started to catch on to what was happening.

“When the clues first started, I was really confused,” Knight said. “I read the first envelope of rules and was confused, but when my mom handed me another envelope of a clue, that’s when I got it.”

Even though Knight did not understand what was happening at first, she says she enjoyed that the promposal was a big surprise. She also feels that the inclusion of so many of her friends and family made it more special.

“I think me being surprised made it even better,” Knight said. “He (Fisher) had to put all of his thought into it… and do it without me knowing.”

While some students decide to take an elaborate approach, senior Holly Pruitt is deciding to keep her promposal more low key. She still wants to do something special for her date, but not anything that will attract too much attention from others.

“I want it to be more of an intimate thing between one person and another,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt believes the majority of extravagant promposals are only done for attention, and that one made just for her date would be more meaningful. She feels that the added attention from doing big promposals can take away from their true meaning, but is not completely opposed to them.

“Make sure it’s for genuine reasons,” Pruitt said.

SHS English teacher Erin Ancelet says that when she was in high school, promposals were not very prevalent. She says that she’s only started to notice them since she’s worked at SHS.

“Sometimes maybe people would get flowers or do something cute, but it (promposals) wasn’t a thing when I was in high school,” Ancelet said.

Ancelet thinks part of the reason why students are doing more flashy promposals is because they want to display them on social media. She feels that some students mostly want the attention they get from doing special promposals, but that others still do them for the point of the gesture.

“I think social media has something to do with people wanting to one up the other guy,” Ancelet said. “But I know a lot of them (promposals) are genuine.”