Secret Senior Days Show the Pinnacle of Woodside’s Spirit
Photo Credit: Ryan Blocker
Jelly Steele, Melanie Cooper, and Brian Bligh all pose for a picture on Epic Movies Tuesday.
Chloe Steck, Ryan Blocker, and Makayla Karr-Warner, Staff Writers
October 25, 2011
Filed under Student Life
Every freshman looks forward to their senior homecoming week for one reason: the secret senior spirit days. For the first three spirit days of homecoming week, the seniors collaborate to choose three secret themes with which to surprise the school. Often ridiculous and over-the-top, the senior class celebrates their seniority while amusing themselves and the rest of the school with their goofy and outlandish costumes.
On Monday, Meet Patel dressed up at Lil' Wayne for the music genres theme.
This long-standing tradition has been an integral part of homecoming week for many years, and is a fun and entertaining way to unite all the seniors. “It effectively brings the whole class together at the beginning of the year so that, for the next six months, a lot of activities are done as a class,” said former senior Sam Kelley, “And because homecoming is one of the first, it was a nice ice breaker, and reminded everyone what is so fun about being a senior.”
The secret senior days are a chance for students to compete with each other to see who can be the most ridiculous each day. Jessica Blocker recalled, “Every single outfit was more creative than the last, and it was really fun to see what people came up with.”
In the previous two years, the secret themes for the senior’s spirit days were public safety day, cartoon character day, scuba day, dynamic duo day, toga day, and gender swap day. Michael York, who graduated in 2010, dressed as Lieutenant Dangle from the hit T.V. comedy, Reno 911, for public safety day, and according to his classmate, Jessie Blocker, he “had by far the best costume of the day.”
When asked about his opinion on public safety day, Michael commented, “It was my ‘fave’ without a doubt. Brian Barrow, Barret Johnson, and I all dressed up as Lieutenant Dangle. I looked absolutely ridiculous in tight short-shorts, and will never forget it.”
As these former seniors got to reflect on their fun days during homecoming week, this year’s seniors were preparing for their own exciting days. This year they kept some of the old ideas from the past, while adding their own new and innovative themes.
Teddy dressed up as his favorite character, Gimli, from Lord of the Rings on Tuesday.
On Monday, something big, bold, some may even say a little weird, swept through our campus. Some time during at the weekly class board meetings the seniors here at Woodside met to decide the secret themes they want to depict on these clandestine days of homecoming week. This Monday they chose music genres, a somewhat controversial theme for this years class because many disagreed with the theme choice. Still, seniors across the campus transformed into country western singers, pop phenomenons, and classic rock idols. The fantastic costumes shown on Monday certainly made the rest of the classes feel the music.
Angie and Cody dress up as characters from their favorite movies on Wednesday.
As I walked through the halls I saw a conglomerate of mariachi singers, rappers, and country western singers. I noticed that there were not as many seniors sporting costumes as they have in past years. Though the people who did dress up did so with nonconflictive determination, I could not help but find that many of the seniors were disappointed with this years themes and because of that decided not to dress up. Though some seniors were hesitant at the beginning, many seniors showed up showing school spirit later on in the week.
For Tuesday, the seniors decided to go with the “Epic Movies” theme, where they dressed up as their favorite characters from the most epic movies they could think of. The beauty of this day was that the definition of epic seemed to differ between different people.
Some chose to go with the literal definition of “epic”. April Adonis dressed as one of the Na’vi from the box office hit, Avatar, and painted her entire body blue, while Teddy Tsanakas dressed as Gimli from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Other seniors took a page out of Star Wars, like Kimmi Wong, who dressed like Chewbacca, and Raul Rodriguez, Matt Ennis, and Derek Azzopardi, who dressed up as various Jedi.
On the other hand, some seniors took the word “epic” to mean other things. Angie Durkee and Eric Cisna dressed as the socially awkward yet hilarious “Napoleon Dynamite,” while Jelly Steele and Haley Kanmeyer dressed as two of the little “minions” from Despicable Me. It seems the seniors enjoyed the freedom that this theme allowed them to have and were very creative in their ideas for costumes.
On Wednesday, the seniors decided on the theme “Dynamic Duos”. These varied from Harold and Kumar to Mario and Peach and even Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy. Michelle Tanner and Chris Moffat also painted their bodies blue and came to school as Jake and Neytiri from the movie Avatar.
Dynamic Duos is always a favorite theme amongst the students but there were conflicts that did rise from the decision. One, it was done last year and there were complaints from students that having a partner was a hassle especially in the midst of trying to be original with their costumes. In the end, the seniors came through and the theme ended up being the most spirited day of the three.
For Wednesday, Chris and Michelle dressed up as Jake and Neytiri from Avatar.
Secret senior days are fantastic days because the people who have been on the campus for the most time have the opportunity to show their enthusiasm for our school. From the secret senior-only class board meetings to the days where the secret senior themes are finally revealed through a myriad of costumes, the pride for WHS never gets lost. There is not another time in the year that can describe the love for our school more than secret senior days and this year, we definitely felt the love. Happy homecoming!
The senior class gathered in the quad posing for pictures in their crazy costumes on Wednesday.
Other stories in Student Life
- Once a Wildcat, Always a Wildcat - May 21, 2013
- School's Out for Summer - May 21, 2013
- Just Keep Swimming...Or Not - May 21, 2013
- Goodbye CST - May 21, 2013
- Fashion: Seniors Only - May 9, 2013
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Great article! Reading it I felt as if I was witnessing the Secret Senior Days all over again.
Overall, a really great article. I like how you give a specific description of each day. It really sheds light on the topic of secret senior days and their meaning.
I really like how you explained each theme so that the reader doesn’t have to guess what is going on. Reading this, I cant help but to think about my senior year and what it will be like! Good job!
Explaining ever part of the article with good transitioning helped flow the information of which theme was featured each day and it helped me to continue reading, nice job