If you had told me a week before Spirit Day that I would be cheering on a hamster ball fight between our director, Emily, and one of our seniors, clad head to toe in my least favorite color and essentially drowning in body glitter, I would have never believed you. Yet, that is exactly what I did on the last day of Spirit Week, and it may be one of my very favorite memories. 

I was not prepared for the experience of Spirit Day. I’ve had my fair share of spirit and field days at other schools, but the school spirit at SOTA is immeasurable in comparison. Up until this year, I’d fancied myself an observer of anything school-spirit related, whether that be reading during spirit rallies or ‘forgetting’ to dress up. For this spirit day, I was preparing to scope out what it was like and be better equipped for the next year when I had any idea of what was going to occur, but I am extremely glad that I went all out instead, because that’s exactly what everyone else did.

The day started with walking into school with every student dressed in their department colors. It was not hard to spot Creative Writing (CW) in blinding yellow. As usual, we went to our academic classes in the morning, but then at lunch, we headed to room 227 to get ready. Even though CW is one of the smallest departments and has not actually won the Spirit Day festivities in a long time, the sheer force of excitement and yellow face paint blew me away. On the way down to the track, there is a mandatory run, where each department makes a dramatic entrance to selected music. I am not a runner. But in the insane rush down the hill–decorative caution tape flying, a freshman pushed in an old shopping cart–even I felt like we could conquer the world. 

After watching the performances from both conservatory and world music/dance and competitions of student vs teacher tug o’ war, hungry hippos, hula hoop games, and the like, it was announced that the Visual department won. The subsequent celebration was heartening, not to mention deafening, every department cheering as loudly as we possibly could for our purple-dressed classmates from visual arts.

Yet, this was not the sole focus of CW. As everyone spilled out of the bleachers and across the field, whooping and laughing and congratulating each other, Emily was being helped into a giant, inflated ‘hamster ball’ across the field from one of our seniors, Kendall, and the rest of our department was preparing to witness the showdown of a lifetime. 

Somehow, standing in the middle of the grassy field at the center of the track, next to the other CW members and simply enjoying something ridiculous together, made it feel as though we had not lost at all. It was strangely nostalgic, even for me as a freshman, who had been at SOTA for approximately a month. 

I already can’t imagine having to leave.