As formal season approaches, single sorority girls begin to live in fear of their Gmail inboxes while they await the dreaded formal date Google doc. Yes, this is a very exciting time of the year. Formals give us all an excuse to buy a new dress, get our hair done, have a fabulous dinner and drinks with all of our best friends and go out with all of our sisters. What could be more fun? Unfortunately before the excitement comes the pressure of finding the perfect date. If you have a boyfriend like me you are all set. The only obstacle before you and formal is filling out the Google doc by the deadline. Yes, every season I almost forget to do this. However, not all of us are lucky enough to be fully equipped with the perfect date. Trust me, while you may hate me now for gloating about not having to find a date this year, I deserve to gloat. I have been on the single side more than enough to be very familiar with the unrivaled fear of being a single girl in the weeks before formal. While entirely terrifying, this experience, in hindsight, is actually quite funny. So if you are or have ever been a single sorority girl, you might identify with these ten struggles of finding a date for formal.
1. I’m not seeing anyone right now, so why don’t I invite a friend?
At first this might seem like a great option. You know you will have a great time with this person because y’all hang out all the time. It saves you the embarrassment of dealing with some of the awkward hook up scenarios below. Sadly, even the option of inviting a friend leads to more problems.
2. All of my guy friends have girlfriends
Awks. Lets be honest, no girl is going to be ok with her guy going to another girl’s formal.
3. My closest guy friend might think the invite means more than it does.
So you have a friend that you absolutely love…as a friend. For some reason he has always hoped there would be more. Would inviting him to formal cause him to think you finally feel the same way? How do you phrase the perfect text to make it incredibly clear that you are inviting him JUST as friends??
4. But I want to invite someone who I could possibly hook up with
My drunk self likes to make decisions that my sober self normally wouldn’t. So it is essential to think through this struggle. Can you hook up with your friend and things won’t be weird later? Probably not.
5. Inviting a serious hook up
So you have been hooking up with someone regularly for the majority of the semester, and things are going well. You guys spend time together causally, text during the day, and you hope that this may turn into more. Cue the dreaded formal date email and panic ensues. Suddenly there is so much pressure on the “relationship,” and you are seriously over thinking it. Is inviting him to formal a step in the right direction, or will it scare him away?
6. Inviting a hook up who you don’t talk to in daylight
So there is this guy who you have been hooking up with every weekend for about a month, and he comes to mind when you are thinking about potential formal dates. The only problem is you guys do not talk or text or Facebook message…ever. It is an unspoken rule that you don’t communicate when sober or during daylight. Needless to say inviting him would be extremely uncomfortable.
7. Inviting a new hook up
The end to the semester is going great! You have hid the calm before the storm of finals and you just started hooking up with a great new guy. It’s one-month before formal and it’s already time to invite your date, but you just found a new boy. It is obviously way too soon to invite him, but what are your other options?
8. Getting set up
This seems like the obvious option if you have no other options. It was the route I took as a single sorority girl, and subsequently had the worst night ever. FYI inviting a rando is v awkward.
9. Worrying your date will be drunker than you are
Nothing is worse than taking care of your date at your formal.
10. Inviting someone you don’t actually like but know will look good in pictures
Not to sound like shallow sorority girls, but sometimes when push come to shove we are. If we aren’t taking someone we actually want to go with, we might as well take someone that will look good in all of those very public formal pictures.
11. Inviting someone just because you want to go to their formal
I think this one stands on its own…
12. Timing your invite
The formal Google doc comes out about one moth before formal, giving you two weeks to find the perfect date, which is clearly very challenging. Not to mention it is very awkward to ask someone so far in advance. Figuring out who to invite takes time, but you don’t have time. The ratio at this school is terrible! So don’t hesitate and invite your guy before one of your sisters beats you to the punch!
13. Considering the group
So you have FINALLY settled on who you are going to invite, and now you begin to worry about whether or not they will get along with your friends and their dates.
The struggle is endless, but the night will be worth it, I promise.