To heighten school spirit before homecoming on October 15th, the school celebrated its annual Spirit Week. During spirit week, each day has an assigned theme. Students then dress up according to the specific themes. Because students did not have school on Columbus Day, the spirit “week” lasted only four short days.

With teachers making up for lost time, the school spirit lightened up the course load and hectic school atmosphere. On Friday, students left G block early for a pep rally on the Hingham High School turf, where teams ran out and played fun games with teachers, captains, and siblings. The pep rally was hosted by spirited seniors Elizabeth Croteau and Matt Rice. This week, the themes for each day were:

Tuesday: Pajama Day

Wednesday: Tie Dye Day

Thursday: Hawaiian Day

Friday: Hingham Pride Day

Senior at Hingham High School, Zachary Lewis Lytle, a very respectable young man and student, had this to say about spirit week “I found PJ day to be very comfortable especially when I got to wear flannel PJs and slippers to school. I also wore my favorite shirt. It has the solar system on it. Tie Dye Day was a bit harder as I did not have a Tie Dye shirt. I tried to borrow one from Noah Goodman but it did not fit me at all. So then I got one from my brother, It had a lightning bolt and was very cool. I did not participate in Hawaiian Day. I wore a Hingham XC shirt on Friday’s Hingham Pride Day. But it was black and people verbally abused me for not wearing red and white. Good times”. Zachary’s mixed experiences were not limited to just him, as his classmate and fellow feminist Hanan Traiba rated spirit week “a 7.3 out of 10”.

While Zachary and Hanan felt out of sorts during Spirit week, their opinions were not felt by classmates universally. Junior Dylan Davis felt a certain sense of belonging during Spirit Week, explaining, “On Hawaiian Day, I finally felt normal wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a lei. I wish we could have Hawaiian Day more often, or maybe just a Hawaiian year. Everybody looked happy, relaxed, and friendly, and because everybody wore similar Hawaiian shirts, gender inequality was much less apparent”. Dylan’s connection with Hawaiian Day emphasizes the need for more spirit weeks to make more students feel a sense of belonging.

High School is too often viewed as a strictly scholastic environment, so the chance to have fun is so rare for many students. Max Giarrusso, as the president of the senior class, has taken the initiative to provide more opportunities for the student body to display and generate school pride which in turn makes our school a better environment for all grades and teams. If I could change one thing about Spirit Week, I would remind students to dress up the night before each theme to ensure the most spirited of spirit weeks. There will be at least two more spirit weeks this year, so to all the HHS students: be prepared!