It happens to me every fall around this time of year. I scroll Facebook and try to contain the jealousy I feel when I see students from other schools flaunting their theme days and bonding activities during the week leading up to homecoming.

I get that we don’t host a homecoming, we don’t have a football team, but I’d like to have a week where the Hockaday student body can enjoy pep rallies and participate in a series of thematic dress days as a way to not only instate the play initiative into school life, but also just to bond as a student body.

When I complain publicly to other students, I’m shut down by logical reasoning that annihilates my call for reform.

We’re an all-girls school; we don’t have a homecoming game or a homecoming dance, so why would we have a spirit week? It doesn’t make sense.

I disagree. We deserve a spirit week too. Some girls at Hockaday are satisfied with the no homework break that accompanies St. Mark’s Homecoming, but shouldn’t we also get to celebrate homecoming in our own school, as our own student body? It seems strange to think that our version of homecoming is hoping to attend other schools’ dances.

I’m not suggesting we have our own homecoming dance—we have winter formal. But why not have a spirit week building up to the dance?

Any element of competition within the school, even something meant to be relaxing and friendly (cough bingo), serves as an example to how fired up the Hockaday students can get about anything.

This energy from its students is a defining characteristic of Hockaday and is all the more reason to have a week where it is celebrated and encouraged. The week leading up to winter formal would be an apt time. And there are other opportunities that could work as well, such as the week of alumnae day or the week leading up to an SPC tournament.

What matters is that the student body has a chance to exhibit their school spirit—and not just watch as other schools display theirs.

– Molly