This year, leadership came up with some questionable ideas for spirit week. For those that don’t remember, because they were unmemorable, Monday was America day. Tuesday was futuristic day. Wednesday was frontiers day. Thursday was adventure day. Friday was big red day.
It can be said that these were absolutely creative ideas for spirit days. However, I wish McLean had stuck to the good old reliable spirit days. I was shocked and angered to see that there would neither be a pajama day nor a tacky day.
Both these spirit days are great because, on tacky day, everyone comes to school with such a wide variety of diverse clothing. The school becomes a wonderland of bright, un-matching colors. On pajama day, the whole student body has the chance to go to school in their most comfortable pajamas without fearing ridicule. As well as being comfortable, students get to display a wide range of different pajama styles.
The problem with the spirit days this year was that, for the most part, they did not encourage ridiculous, creative outfits. The prevailing goals of spirited highlanders on Main Street USA day was to wear anything one owned that had an American Flag on it and to wear red, white, and blue. This does not involve much creativity and excludes any highlander who doesn’t own clothes in these colors.
Tomorrowland day was also not very successful because futuristic dressing is not a commonly known thing. I kept being told that it meant I was supposed to wear bright, metallic colors. The message was neither obvious nor widespread because Tomorrowland day seemed to have the lowest participation. However, those few spirited highlanders who were creative on each day displayed some awesome use of tin-foil hats that salvaged the failed day.
When the vast majority of students heard frontiersman day, I can only assume their first thoughts were “perfect, I can just wear my flannel and jeans.” And they did. In huge numbers. Once again, a very few people went above and beyond and demonstrated their spirit by riding fake horses down the halls and wearing hideous overalls or the moccasins that they haven’t had an excuse to wear in over a year. However, for the most part, the school was taken over by commonplace American Eagle flannels.
Adventureland day was just that: an adventure. Nobody really knew what it entailed and therefore there were a huge range of outfits. Among the different interpretations of Adventureland day, I saw a few pirates, an about equal amount of safari-goers, a witch, a student in a gorilla mask, and a large number of regularly dressed, confused highlanders.
A hugely successful Big Red Days salvaged the week. It was so successful that the few hapless highlanders who forgot, or didn’t participate on some sort of weird moral stance, stood out significantly more than ever before. Highlanders displayed so much school spirit and pride on the Big Red Day that the earlier spirit day confusion could be ignored. Another successful spirit week at McLean.
