When it comes to successful student engagement, high schoolers have the potential to bring influence and passion to the table. But why is it that only a select few from the Class of 2023 choose to participate? From homecoming events to student sections to even prom planning, the Class of 2023 really needs to step up their game.

Homecoming. It’s a big deal.

Everyone gets together to watch the Tigers take on their opponent on Friday night, and the following night is the dance. But that is not all that Homecoming week entails. To start off on Sunday, a whole five days before the big game, there are usually four events: co-ed kickball, door decorating, boys volleyball, and girls football. The entire week also consists of dress-up days. Each grade competes with each other to earn points, and on Friday at the homecoming assembly, the winner is revealed. I don’t know about the rest of my class, but I personally do not look forward to that announcement.

We never come out on top.

This could be because of the fact that the current senior class of 2022 has dominated these activities for as long as they have been in high school, but I also do believe that it could have something to do with our class having what seems to be no interest in attending these events. We have to practically beg for people to show up to participate in the games. Once they get there, they have a blast, but it’s like pulling teeth to try to get them to come.

I say we take note of how successful the class of 2022 has been with not only homecoming, but also with being close as a class in general and try to make that success our own. From observing the class of 2022 and speaking with students within their class, there seems to be some sort of unspoken rule when it comes to attendance during extracurricular activities.

It is common knowledge that most athletes thrive with support, whether it be from their parents, coaches or their classmates. One huge way to show that support as a student is sitting in the student section.

A typical night in the student section consists of chants, cheering, and the occasional roller coaster, all led by the senior boys who sit in the front row. But many students fear that when the Class of 2022 graduates and the Class of 2023 get their chance to be top dog, they will choke.

This does not surprise me because of the lack of kids from our grade who attend games. Many of them are athletes themselves who should know how much of an impact support has on their game. But do they come to games that are not their own? No. Yes, I know people have other things to do, but I know for a fact that they are not busy every single time there is a game. They focus on things like video games. Well, put down your stupid Fortnite for two hours and go support your peers.

This year is our junior prom. An event like this literally only comes once in a lifetime, and honestly, I’m not a huge fan of getting all dressed up, so if I’m going to do so, all I have to say is that it had better be worth it.

The junior “class,” along with the prom advisers, have been meeting every Wednesday since towards the beginning of Tri 2, during the second half of lunch and learn to plan and layout every aspect of prom: tickets, food, music, decorations, etc.

If you noticed how I put quotation marks around the word class, it is because instead of the majority of our grade being involved with these meetings, it has only been a few. A solid 6-7 people in our grade continuously attend these meetings and help fundraise, and the rest either come every once and a while or not at all. I couldn’t tell you if the reason why they don’t come is that they are scared to put their opinion out there, or if they just aren’t interested in helping, but what I can tell you is that the people who are doing all the work are not happy.

If I haven’t gotten my point across that our grade does not do well with helping out with different events, I’ll lay out some real numbers for you. In order to raise money for each class, the advisers of each grade set up dates where we are able to work concessions at volleyball, football, and basketball games.

Since our freshman year, only 20 out of the 105 students in our grade have helped fundraise money. That means, for concessions, only a total of 19% of our class has been involved with fundraising for things such as prom. Those numbers do leave out the recent fundraising that the prom committee set up. We worked chuck-a-puck at four of the varsity boys home hockey games, and there were about 10 people who helped out with that on various nights.

It might seem like all I’m doing is complaining, but this could start to be a real issue when it comes to actually decorating for prom. On the Friday before prom, juniors are excused from school for the day to decorate wherever their prom is going to be. The rule is, you have to attend a certain number of prom meetings and help with fundraising in order to help decorate.

This becomes an issue because even with the policy in place, there are students that think they will still be able to get excused from school for the day, even though they did not put any effort into the planning or fundraising process. This is not fair to the students who took time out of their day to do the work that needed to be done. I mean, seriously, we had girls taking off of work to be at fundraising events because nobody else would show up.

On the other side, when it comes to the actual decorating part, it would be nice to have more than 10 people there. It would make the process go a lot faster and then more people could have their opinion out there about how prom should look. I know that there will be comments about prom decorations, set up, and activities.

Let me be clear: I can tell you right now, any member of the prom committee will not take any complaints about the event if those complaining were not a part of planning. If you want something to be different, they don’t want to hear it. You should have been there to have a say. This obviously does not apply to other grades. We would be happy to consider any ideas from y’all.

Moral of the story: I am proud to be one of the few who actually seem to care about our class. I hope that everyone who attends prom has a great time, but for the rest of my class, DO BETTER!