After leaving high school, I thought I’d never again be graced with the high-stakes, satisfying rush of a promposal. There’s nothing as viscerally awkward and simultaneously pseudo-romantic as making a corny sign, embarrassing your love interest at school, or showing up to their house unannounced so that parents can film the whole ordeal. I had mourned those days as being behind me until this semester. Now that I’m in my first computer science class, I’ve realized that I can replicate those feelings through my coursework: finding and securing a partner for computer science projects is like executing back to back promposals—thrilling!
These proj-posals can take many forms: cornering your coder of choice after class to ask them before anyone else can, bribing a partner with the most powerful method possible: meal swipes (#SwipeDaddy), asking incredibly awkwardly through a friend of a friend, or à la the text below courtesy of my own awkwardness.
Instead of trying to match yourself with the coolest date possible (as was obviously the case in high school), things are completely reversed: you’re trying to land yourself the biggest nerd possible (a tough feat at a place with more NerdsTM than an elementary school birthday party).
Unlike in high school when you sort of knew who ran in what circles and who already had a date, the nerds in computer science are sneaky. It’s not obvious who is smart or even who’s still up for grabs—and the best ones are usually snagged longggg before the course gets rolling.
Not to mention, you might have felt that your social reputation was on the line in high school but that’s nothing compared to the way your GRADE is on the line in computer science classes! You NEED the smartest partner so you can do better than everyone else (Brown’s all about competition, right??).
So, when you finally take the plunge and ask that coder with the swiftest keystrokes, the fastest processor, the after-hours CIT swipe access, and latest version of Python installed, you will be set for two weeks until you get(have?) to put yourself out there again. If you spend enough time in the CIT though, soon the proj-posals will be coming to you 😉