Outrageous Love

It’s all about ‘08

My high school held their second pep rally of the year today. The previous pep rally, held a couple months ago for fall sports, was something of a disaster. It began with 4 senior girls and myself singing the national anthem. The nicest way I can put this is that we completely sucked. The crowd laughed without shame. We screwed up the song horribly, leading the student body to giggling sacrilege in the middle of our country’s national song.

After looking at each other in deep horror and humiliation, the senior singers sat down to watch the rest of the pep rally; A freshman dancing with our bulldog mascot and the teachers playing basketball. I believe there were more yawns than cheers in the bleachers that day.

Today, however, was different. Imagine this: faces painted in bold blue letters (AJHS!), blue and white ribbons nestled festively in girls’ ponytails, a sea of navy blue hoodies, t-shirts, hats and other high school related apparel, amid the roaring cheers of "OH-EII-EIGHT!!!! OH-EII-EIGHT!!!" The teacher emceeing the event gave up in telling us to stop cheering already and sat defiantly on the gym floor until we would cease the madness.

I usually am not particularly enthusiastic in holding school spirit, but in that moment I was so thrilled to be a member of my strong senior class, I couldn’t remove the enormous cheesy grin from my face. Yes, this is MY school.

*****

As part of my school’s "Spirit Week," we had a "Deck the Halls" contest yesterday after school. Classes were assigned school hallways to decorate for the holidays. The class with the best hall on Friday would win a "possible dress down day" (Not a very promising bribe, but a bribe nonetheless). At the end of the day, the contest was announced, ice cream bars were distributed (one of the perks of spirit week!), and classes were expected to start adorning their respective hallways. Seniors conversed in the Student Life Office. Juniors played foosball in the corner of the cafeteria. Sophomores ruled the front steps. The Freshmen actually started working, putting all upperclassmen to shame.

Seniors were responsible for the foyer. We thought our decorating process was progressing quite well as we set up a 6-foot artificial Christmas tree that we had taken without permission from the Student Life Program (AJHS’s version of Student Council). As the tree lay in pieces on the floor, a teacher breezed by us commenting, "You should see the freshmen, they’re kicking ass." Bullshit, we thought, as some of us snuck over to the freshman hall. And then we saw: dozens of freshmen crawling on the floor, up the walls, swinging from the ceiling; wrapping mock present boxes, taping bows to the walls, hanging mini Christmas lights. And Oh my God, we thought in a panic. The freshmen cannot win this.

And so then we really set to work. Teams were sent on high priority missions to Dollar Tree, Safeway, to any place where they might purchase anything reminiscent of Christmas. Seniors remaining at school covered cafeteria tables with rolls of paper and busied themselves in measuring, tracing, and cutting.

When I left school that day, seniors were still working diligently, creating a glittery, papery mess. I told my freshman brother that his class was probably, unfortunately, going to win the contest.

*****

I arrived at school the next day to see life-size numbers covering four of the front doors:

2008.

Oh, what a feeling. The seniors shone through absolutely brilliantly. Some of them had stayed at the school until 7 or 8 PM, perfecting our hall. Our stolen tree was beautifully adorned with an abundance of silver tinsel and intertwined by thick blue and silver ribbon. A banner reading "SENIORS" in tall, black elegant leaders hung behind it. Small white lights dangled gracefully in front of the banner. The door to the stairs held an oversized Christmas stocking, with all 55 seniors’ names written on it. Glittery paper snowflakes dressed the inside of the front doors. Cloth snowflake tree ornaments were suspended from the fluorescent light fixtures.

It was indeed a winter wonderland, skillfully created by brilliant and innovative members of my senior class. Upon seeing this ingenuity, I became very energized, as if I’d just downed a tall, strong coffee. But I was caffeine free and still on fire! (I was also very, very proud.)

*****

The anticipated announcement at today’s pep rally that the SENIORS had WON Deck the Halls was followed by an eruption of screaming, laughing, jumping and overwhelming cheers. We WON!!! The CLASS OF 2008 came through!!! It was quite thrilling. I eagerly leaped into action with the school camera.

I was the unofficial photographer of the pep rally and honestly had the time of my life pointing and shooting. I am sure I looked like some kind of obsessive idiot running around the gym trying to catch an optimal shooting angle, and rudely climbing over sophomores in the bleachers to take pictures of kids in the back row, but it didn’t matter because I am extremely satisfied with some of the today’s shots. As an aspiring photographer, I am more than willing to be an obnoxious pain in the ass in order to capture a good photo. It can be somewhat awkward standing directly in front of a screaming crowd of teenagers pointing a camera at them, but I would go through that 100 times over to get shots like I did today. It’s art. And shit, you gotta do what you gotta do. It often turns out wonderfully. It feels pretty good, viewing those photos over and over again, saying, Yep, that one’s mine. I took it! I immortalized that emotional moment.

*****

Today was quite a day. Quite a day.

May the Class of 2008 continue to kick incredible ass!!