Michelle Monier | Editor-in-Chief
September 18, 2024
The week before Homecoming is supposed to be a time of vibrant school spirit, student enthusiasm, and buzzing excitement for upcoming weekend events of the Homecoming parade, football game, and dance. Called “Spirit Week,” ASB organizes events, activities, and the annual tradition of dress-up days. This year’s daily themes are class theme, twin day, BBQ dads vs. soccer moms, Adam Sandler, and PJ day. Student participation in these days has historically been inconsistent amongst classes, but usually the senior class carries the excitement and dedication to the themes. This year however, Class of ’25 is falling short, and participation amongst lower classmen is miniscule.
So why is Spirit Week flopping, and why is the Class of ’25 letting it?
One would first assume social pressure, and a fear that participation in Spirit Week events would be viewed as lame. But with seniors walking around with kindergarten designed backpacks, including Lightning McQueen and Disney characters, that seems unlikely. The fear of conformity decreases by senior year, so a possible answer is that the seniors this year are simply uninterested in the event and not wanting to give up their usual styles. Around campus, seniors chose to wear their typical clothes over dressing up, and seemed impartial to the belief of doing everything “one last time” for senior year. Students’ dress is an important part of self-expression, so they are choosing to continue wearing outfits that express themselves over adhering to the themes.
However, many students haven’t chosen an all or nothing approach, and instead opted for picking and choosing only some of the days to participate in. Senior Emily Ohman chose to participate in class theme, twin day, and soccer mom vs. BBQ dad, but had no interest in the Adam Sandler or PJ day. This method seems to be synonymous with a vast majority of Class of ’25, and Ohman believed it is because “people dress up for the days that align with clothes they already own and feel comfortable in; so the days that require more niche clothing have lower participation because people want to dress in clothes that still align with their styles and identities.”
Even ASB started seeing the decline in popularity and tried to add incentives to encourage greater participation and statements of school spirit. Each day this week there was an online competition via social media, and a daily winner for “best dressed.” Students had to take a photo with Principal Baker while in their themed outfit and post it on social media to be eligible. However, this didn’t counteract the decline as much as originally hoped, and senior ASB coordinator Julia Sipelis believes ASB has promoted dress-up as best as possible, but “it’s hard to negate the pre-established belief that showing school spirit and wearing something for a school event instead of yourself is embarrassing.” This trend can be seen past Spirit Week dress-up days, as it has become a commonality between senior participation in a wide array of school events: sports, dances, and senior events.
But with Homecoming happening so early this year, there is still time to reverse the trend. With a full year of events still ahead, it is time for us, the Class of ’25, to leave all reservations behind and make every spirit day and event count because it really is the last time for the class of ’25.
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