The Taylor student body proves creative in their search to meet new people and find pick-a-dates (PADs). While many students ask friends or people they may already know, others have opted for less traditional routes and have enjoyed fun results.
In her search to meet someone out of her circle, sophomore Brooke Jones created a survey to find a date for her wing’s painting PAD.
Jones’ survey consisted of several questions starting easy: asking applicants their name and favorite color. Next, however, she asked deeper questions such as, “What is God showing you and what is that teaching you?”
To spread the word, Jones put QR codes in men’s dorms around campus. Jones also reached out to a friend who let others on their wing know about the PAD application.
After receiving responses, Jones made her selection with the help of her sister. She both ended up having a good time with good conversation and, by the end of the night, good results. Following her initiative and intention, Jones got to meet someone new.
Jones isn’t the only one to come up with unique PAD asking techniques. During silent disco last year, sophomore Chelsea Hickman also had fun meeting new people. Encouraged and dared by friends and wing mates, Hickman wore a cut out cardboard box that said “pick-a-date” to the dance.
“I got a lot of looks. It was a lot of fun,” Hickman said.
She went on to encourage others to have fun with the opportunity to get creative when asking PADs.
Sophomore Vincent Harder and his wing, First West Wengatz, also like to have fun asking people on pick-a-dates.
Harder shared several stories such as guys making posters asking for PADs and sitting with them in the LaRita Boren Campus Center. He has even seen men march around Olson with speakers blaring, “You. Me. Pick-a-date,” until somebody said yes.
One of the most fun to watch ways Harder has seen someone ask a PAD was recently when one of his friends gave a banana to a girl and called her up on his own banana phone saying, “Ring Ring, can you go on a pick-a-date with me?”
To those who don’t know who to ask on their next PAD, Harder offered advice.
“Take someone new that you don’t know,” Harder said. “I think it’s more fun when you’re just a little bit outside of your comfort zone. That’s something I’ve personally done. Don’t repeat. Don’t take a sister, take that one random girl in your class, or take whoever it may be.”
Individuals aren’t the only ones who have fun with asking pick-a-dates, however. Wings like Samuel Morris Hall’s Penthouse floor and Third English also use surveys to meet new people and find PADs.
Penthouse has an annual moms PAD where women apply to go on a pick-a-date with guys based on photos and descriptions of the Penthouse guys’ moms.
Third English’s Broomball PAD also requires applications and even references. Sophomore Alie Lewis lived in Third English last year and this year attended Broomball as a PAD. She shared that sometimes applicants are funny with their answers and Third English women can be in for a bit of a surprise.
Last year Lewis and other wing mates called the friends’ references of an applicant for Broomball. They had fun with the experience asking questions like, “If your friend were a vegetable what kind of vegetable would they be?”
She shared how she had a lot of fun with the creative PAD asking process.
“It makes it more lighthearted,” Lewis said. “ It’s super fun when you get your friends to set you up with someone else, because it takes the pressure off of you.”
