This year, Spirit Week at MFS will be very different from any previous Spirit Week. Among the plethora of changes are some that particularly stand out. Just to name a few, videos for Airband will now be separately scored and Girls’ Slimy Fish Toss is now an event. Besides all of these official changes, the week was pushed back a month, and the week chosen this year is only four days long, with a day off right smack in the middle of it.
Because of the postponement of the ever-coveted week for Upper School students, freshmen now have their very own class officers. This is significant because for the first time in recent memory, ninth graders will have class officers to guide them through the deer-in-headlights experience that is Spirit Week for all Freshmen.
Newly elected ninth grade president Vishal Doshi think that the change “will help our grade because all of the ninth graders will have someone to go to with suggestions and concerns and I will be able to address them.”
Although this year’s freshmen are now at less of a disadvantage than a usual year’s rookies, Doshi recognizes that the lack of experience is an inherent disadvantage for freshmen, saying, “I don’t feel as confident in the events that involve planning such as airband and hallway because we are not really prepared.”
The lack of preparation is a common theme among the grades of the Upper School for events like Airband and Hallway this year. Sophomore president Jordan White, Junior president Alexis Tsapralis, and Senior president David White are all in agreement that each grade needed the time because they weren’t ready.
David White, when asked about the Seniors’ preparedness for the original dates, giggled and admitted simply that “we weren’t prepared for Spirit Week.” In response to the delay, David noted, “Our grade was pretty ecstatic that it was moved, but with the extra time it feels like we need to win.”
The Sophomores and Juniors are in the same boat, but Junior president Alexis Tsapralis believes that the 11th grade has a very strong chance to take the week. “I think the juniors will be great this year,” she said, “I think we’ll rank highly in hallway and airband and I think we have pretty good chances in the other activities as well.”
Sophomore president Jordan White is not so optimistic about the Sophomores’ chances, however. After noting that the postponement helped a lot, he fears that Airband could still suffer because “We lack strong dancers and outgoing people, so I feel our Airband will be a little weak.”
This year’s Spirit Week has the potential of being remembered as one of the greats, but with that comes the very real possibility that it could end in a disaster. Time will only tell the fate of 2014’s “delayed Spirit Week.”
