Every year around October, high schools and colleges all around the United States celebrate the homecoming of the alumni and students beginning a new year. West has a whole week dedicated to homecoming.
Starting out with spirit week, where students dress up according to the spirit days that are selected by student government. Students who are nominated to be on court dress up in fancy clothes the whole week, wearing a sash and a crown or tiara. They then follow that up with a homecoming football game, against the Chugiak Mustangs.
West students, staff members and alumni all came together to celebrate homecoming. They show off the homecoming floats, announced the homecoming royalty court, have a tailgate party and get to watch some football. Later that night or the following day, the big homecoming dance happens, where students all gather and get to have a big dance put on by their school.
Our West High School homecoming celebration started on September 29th, but our dance got moved down the road to October 16th due to religious holidays. The students that were nominated to be on court were Princess’s Kayle Blackmore, Sabrina Carlson, Abby Fisher, Wenyin Metcalf, Maya McPherson, Julia Merrit, Anne Vollertsen, and Anette Faafetai.
The prince’s nominated were Sam Wedin, Anton Clark, Jejomar Briones, Jeremiah Cordero, Will Man, William Ditmore, Chardo Elliot and Joey Carreon. Student government has decided to keep the build up of the excitement for the homecoming dance by creating another spirit week, the week of the dance. Royalty has the option to wear the sash and crowns again before the dance or they can dress up for spirit week.
The homecoming dance is on this Thursday at 8 p.m. Student government has a table set up a table where students can come and vote who is going to be king and queen. Being voted on court is the easy part, there is a lot going behind being on court. After student government goes around and collects ballets, the hard part comes, counting ballots.
Rylee Towell, a junior in student government is in charge of counting ballots for royalty. “It is very difficult, you tally everything up and it is very time consuming,” Rylee exclaimed. Once the votes are in, they then announce royalty after school and the prince and princess’s receive their crown, tiaras and sashes.
The Executive Board is in charge of ordering the sashes, which are custom made at an embroidery shop. Students on court traditionally wear sashes and crowns. They have to dress up semi-formal all week. Most students do not like this part of the tradition. Princess Wenyin Metcalf stated, “by the end of the week I started feeling pretty but I’m not the type to dress up a lot so it was a terrifying thought but it was fun in real life.”
Some student enjoy the sash, “I get to walk around like a boss with my sash on.” Prince Sam Wedin exclaimed. The Homecoming dance is a huge occasion and has a lot of work, effort and time that is put into putting on this celebration. Students will remember these moments for the rest of their life.
Samantha Emery: The Balance Between Work, School, and Sleep
The balance between work and school can be a tough one, especially for those in high school. With classes all day that drain the students energy it’s hard for them to go work right after.
The working population in high schools is made up of mostly upperclassmen. These 11th and 12th graders have college preparation, homework, extra curricular activities, and work to balance. The average high schooler attends class about 30 hours a week and working even just an extra 10 hours a week is difficult.
When asked how much he works, Ryan Kahlenbeck from Bartlett High School said, “I work about 26 hours a week, it’s hard to get anything done after school and work. My free time is very limited.”
Students have very limited time for homework and other activities. This keeps the from doing things they enjoy. The balance can get even harder for students who take difficult classes. Homework time is scarce after working.
When asked if it’s hard to find motivation to get homework done Ryan said, “I just want to go home and sleep after work, but I have hours of homework ahead of me.”
West senior Natalie Manske plays flag football while also having a part time job at a hair salon, Natalie has a hard time getting enough sleep after she finishes everything that needs to be done in her short days. Students have a hard time finding enough joey to cover their expenses. With such limited time students can only work minimal hours, without very high pay.
Ryan Kahlenbeck earns $10 an hour is on the high end of the situation for most teenagers, yet he still doesn’t feel he makes enough money. “I need money just to eat lunch, pay for car insurance, and buy my own clothes, I can barely do that with what I make.”
With schedules like these teens have little time to cut loose and live like normal teenagers. The load can become too much and they tend to see their grades slip, or quality of work in the work place.
These early years are supposed to be the fun ones for these teens, but they constantly find themselves struggling to find time to get enough sleep. This not only is a danger to their health, but trying to figure out what the future has in store for them is more difficult, with little time left over to explore their options.