In past years, Robinson has had the tradition of holding spirit week before homecoming. However, this year was set up a little differently due to a couple complications. Since our school did not host the homecoming game the day before the dance, spirit week preceded the homecoming football game against Newsome which was a week before the dance.

In your four years of high school, you only have four homecomings. Meaning you only have the chance to dress up and spread spirit for four weeks of your high school career.

In my opinion you should dress up for spirit week. Not participating in spirit week misses opportunities you might regret when looking back years from now. Spirit week is a great opportunity to spread spirit and appreciation for the school while having fun with your friends.

People don’t want to be judged for what they wear so they decide not to dress up, but this is the one week where no one can judge you. Spirit week is where you dress up according to special themed days involving dressing in costumes, wearing school colors, or wearing things you have around your house to go along with the themes. You can wear whatever you want and no one will care, not even the administration (as long as you’re not dressed inappropriately).

Getting a group of your friends together and getting pumped up by spirit week is not hard. Having a get together and planning your outfits is one way to get excited about it. Wear what you want to wear and you can encourage other people to get involved too.

Although some might be mad about the spirit days not sticking to tradition, you shouldn’t just brush them off. The fun part about spirit week is not the ideas itself, but dressing up and having a fun time spreading spirit around your school. If people know the majority of the school is dressing up for spirit week then maybe more people will be comfortable and want to dress up.

Aside from students dressing up, teachers— the leaders of the school— should also take action and participate in spirit week. They can lead kids to believe that dressing up for spirit week is fun. Not many of the teachers dress up or even promote spirit week and they are lacking spirit for their school. Teachers can inspire students through their actions. More students and teachers need to get involved to change this culture of not dressing up.

Dressing up improves the quality of spirit week as well as everyone’s day by spreading spirit and getting people hyped for the big game on Friday.

I personally love dressing up for Spirit Week, but it wasn’t until this year that I felt comfortable doing it. While I love it now, I can see why some people don’t.

The grade that I see dressing up the least is freshman, which is understandable once you talk to one of them. It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing, especially at a new school. People just want to fit in and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Freshman year, I wanted to dress up and had a bunch of ideas, but none of my friends or classmates really did it so I just scrapped it. The one day that I did dress up, barely anyone in my grade did and I felt self-conscious.

As an underclassman, you’re still trying to figure out how you want to present yourself to your new classmates. If i’m a freshman and I show up on Tacky Tourist day wearing socks and sandals, a hat and a Hawaiian shirt, I’ll definitely fit the theme. But if nobody else in my grade does it, I risk being called “extra” and being made fun of simply for participating. Frankly, that’s nerve-wracking.

People shouldn’t be worried to dress up, but at the same time, if they don’t want to, they shouldn’t feel pressured to. Some people don’t want attention called to them and that’s okay. Sometimes, it’s a matter of just not wanting to put in effort, which is also justifiable.

Coming up with something to wear for Spirit Week can take time and thinking and some people just don’t want to do that. I may be lucky enough to have a jersey and puka shell necklace at home, but going out of your way to get things for Spirit Week can be discouraging.

Aside from just not wanting to dress up, getting an outfit for every themed day can be expensive. If someone doesn’t own an expansive or colorful wardrobe, spirit day can be an expensive and unnecessary event to plan for. Not everybody has the money or the transportation to go out and buy accessories or shirts to go with the spirit week days. It’s not always a matter of spirit and if that is their situation, it’s wrong to shame them for not dressing up.

The weekend before Spirit Week, my friend and I went to Target and Walmart and still couldn’t find some of things we were looking for. We decided to work with what we had, but it can be frustrating.

It all depends on the person. You should dress up if you want to, regardless of who in your grade is and how far they’re willing to go. On the other hand, some people just don’t want to and that’s okay. In the long run, it doesn’t impact anyone but yourself whether or not you dress up.