Fluorescent lights glowing, speakers blaring, the cheers of students and staff alike fill the gym with excitement. Cheerleaders cheering and jumping with joy give energy and courage to their team right before the big game. The time old tradition of high school spirit lives on — or does it? 

In the 2017-2018 school year, West Campus stopped hosting pep rallies due to a lack of enthusiasm and interest from students. While the time honored tradition holds up at MCHS’s East Campus, a lot of West students have seemed to have lost the school spirit because of the loss of pep rallies and other activities that encourage pep. 

When you think about the classic high school experience, you think about everyone matching in school colors, cheering on the football team, and the marching band blaring in the background. Classic film examples show what the ideal high school experience is. Everyone is involved, and even the students who aren’t still show their support for their schools team. This ideal example has been almost completely lost to the modern high school student. Most students seem to be entirely unenthusiastic because school spirit is just not cool anymore. 

School spirit can bring together a student body and make everyone feel like they’re part of something bigger. Marsha Potthoff, West Campus’s principal, says “School spirit can help students make good memories of their high school experiences.” This is exactly why we as a student body need to be more open to exiting their comfort zones and showing school spirit, especially now. Through the pandemic, a lot of students have lost interest in school, and while it is understandable that the school is doing their best, it just isn’t working. 

Potthoff also stated how it’s hard to get every student involved, which is understandable, but the general consensus is that our school comes off as sad and bland. In order to spice up the reputation of MCHS and bring up the morale of the student body, we need to encourage more involvement in spirit related activities. Spirit weeks and themed days are fun, but it feels like we need to take more inspiration from students and other schools to bring more attention to these days. 

Using social media to get students involved, or having meme day as opposed to tie-dye day could be the exact push that we need to get more students involved. Looking at videos on TikTok and YouTube show how other schools across the country have way more active participation when students are actually interested in the events. 

StuCo is doing a great job right now, especially considering the circumstances of this school year, but students just aren’t enthusiastic about coming to school anymore. We’ve taken the first step towards a fun high school experience, we just need to collectively give a little more life to the idea of school spirit in order to achieve the goal of a perfect high school experience.