Don’t let the perfectly posed pictures that you see on Instagram the next day fool you. Despite the clean-cut looking couples that you see on your screen, formal isn’t as simple as it looks. You can’t prepare for your next formal without blood, sweat, tears, and don’t forget anxiety attacks (what a time to be Greek)! If you’re a procrastinator, don’t expect the process leading up to formal to go smoothly. In fact, even if you have your life put together, odds are it still probably won’t go smoothly. Here are the 12 struggles of formal season:
1. Date list deadlines.
Nothing can make you feel more single than basically being timed to bribe someone to be your date. In the meantime, the space next to your name remains blank and lonely (kind of like you) on the Google doc.
2. Dates in general.
Finding a date that is fun, not awkward, and taller than you even when you’re in heels can be quite the mission. Finding a date is arguably one of the biggest struggles of formal season.
3. The chance of being randomly selected as a sober monitor.
The moment you see your name tagged in a Facebook post by the girl planning formal, your heart drops a little bit.
4. Coolers
At first it all just seems like fun and games, a nice gesture for your date…
…then almost instantly you regret volunteering yourself to partake in this hard labor.
5. Finding the perfect dress that none of your other 100+ sorority sisters will have.
When formal comes around, it’s like out of nowhere you’re going back to high school homecoming again. Everyone knows the good stores to order and buy dresses from and you know that there’s a 90% chance that you will, indeed, be unintentionally twinning with someone the night of formal.
6. Fraternities having their formal conflict with yours.
The worst part about this isn’t even choosing between which one to attend, but it’s the idea that you will be going to one less formal that semester.
7. The weather is constantly changing.
Spring is a weird season. One day the weather is perfect, and the next it’s like you’re stuck in a hurricane. There is no guarantee that you will have nice weather the night of formal, so cross your fingers and remember that you can never use enough hairspray.
8. Formal sneaks up on you.
You feel like you have plenty of time to plan for formal, and then in the blink of an eye formal is a day away and you realize it’s probably time to start making some moves.
9. The ongoing debate between wearing comfortable shoes or cute shoes.
Even though you will definitely not be wearing shoes on the dance floor, it is still brutal taking pictures for an hour and making it to the event still in heels.
10. Posing your date for an insta-worthy picture.
This is probably the only aspect of formal that you’ve actually been putting a sufficient amount of time into planning. These things matter. For all you know that one nice picture you take with your date could be the last sign of dignity you had that night.
11. Having to communicate the details to your date even though you don’t even know them
Just tell your date from the beginning that you guys are going to be winging this whole entire thing. Avoid the hundreds of questions over text that you don’t even know how to begin to answer.
12. Figuring out which one of your boyfriend’s friends is going to be your best friend’s date
Be prepared to badger your boyfriend for weeks until every single one of his friends ends up on your formal date list. In formal season, being the only one in your friend group that’s in a relationship becomes a full time job. But in the end it’s worth it when your friends actually have dates and don’t try to make a dancing train with you and your boyfriend.