Ask Agony Aunt

AUNTY ETHEL
Volume 1, Issue 5 (Originally Published 26 March 2012)
 
Dear Agony Aunts,
 
There’s a girl I want to ask to the law ball, but I haven’t asked anyone out since high school and I’m not sure how to do it. Is there anything I have to do differently?
 
Little bit Shy
 
***
 
Dear Little bit Shy,
 
Boy, does this take Auntie Ethel back - the awkwardness, the thrill of anticipation, the butterflies, the despair, and most of all hope... Hope that you will find that perfect dress for the ball.
 
Getting back on point, first, the logistics. If she is already going to the ball, make sure you are on the same table while you work up the courage to ask, otherwise it would be a very strange date indeed. If she isn’t, the question you have to ask yourself is, are you planning on paying for her ticket? ‘Yes? That’s great, it’ll be $115 for a ticket’ doesn’t strike Auntie Ethel as a very romantic start to the burgeoning relationship.
 
The asking part is somewhat similar and somewhat different from high school. It’s the same in the sense that you just have to grown a spine, go out on a limb, and ask. The difference is, if she says yes, she’s just saying yes to a date. You can’t assume that you are now boyfriend and girlfriend, and will hold hands and make googly eyes at each other all day at school. You are just being given an opportunity to woo her.
 
Just make sure you make it clear that you are asking her to the ball as a date, and not just if she wants to get there together as friends (because any idiot knows being relegated to friend status is fatal to any romantic aspirations you have).
 
Aunty Ethel