School spirit through the grades

Spirit days give students the chance to dress up in fun outfits, heading to class in floral shirts, cowboy hats or neon vests. Many upperclassmen understand that spirit days allow students to get involved and connect with each other.
“We were taught this model to look backwards and [ask] ‘what does the student body need and how would the majority dress up or participate?’” said senior and Spirit Commission head Antonio Tejeda. “Our goal as Spirit [Commission] is to make sure everyone is included, feels safe and [is] [connected] as a community.”

Seniors, with four years worth of memories, view Aragon as a welcoming place, and see spirit days as a fun side of the high school experience. For the past two years, those years’ seniors have won the ‘Don baton’ at the end of the school year, gaining the most spirit points in their respective years.

“Seniors [typically] show the most spirit because it is your last year and you actually start getting a sense, ‘Okay, you know what, let’s start showing spirit,’” Tejeda said. “[As] underclassmen, you feel afraid that you’re [going to] be the only one, but then as seniors … it’s a bit more accepting [because] you know someone else is going to be dressing up.”
According to students, spirit days bring levity to a stressful school day. Senior Talal Ayoub talks about his favorite spirit day so far: airport day.

“[I] saw a few people in every class with suitcases [or] neck pillows,” Ayoub said. “It’s cool just seeing people dressed up with really random outfits. It brings a little bit of culture to classes and makes it a little less boring.”
Some students see spirit as a vital part of Aragon’s culture.

“Spirit days just bring so much joy and happiness to me,” Tejeda said. “If that’s from getting [something] minor, like bandanas for Western Day, a feather boa for my class color or even just red for our school.”
Fresh into high school, many underclassmen are still adjusting to the new system and finding out about high school traditions.

“Upperclassmen are inclined to participate more because they’ve been at this school for longer,” said sophomore and Spirit Commission member Jayla Abdellatif. “They enjoy the spirit weeks and know what they’re about. Underclassmen, especially freshmen, they’re not really used to high school, and it’s really new to them, so they look up to the upperclassmen and see how they do [it].”

Of the classes, freshmen currently have the least amount of spirit points, with 198 in total.
“A lot of underclassmen are still adjusting to everything about high school,” said sophomore Dahlia Selig. “There’s the ‘I need to be cool’ [mentality] … [and] a fear of [being] the only one dressing up.”

However, as of now it appears that some underclassmen are more inclined to dress up. Currently, sophomores have the most spirit points of the four classes, holding 291 points.

“Dressing up for spirit days makes me feel proud to be representing my class and being an example for others,” said leadership student and freshman Louis Riviere. “Being at a new school and a new environment actually incites me to dress for spirit days, because back in middle school, I never did. In fact, no one did. It’s nice to see more school spirit here.”

Underclassmen will have the chance to experience more spirit days. The next spirit week will be Spine-Chilling Spirit Week starting Oct. 30.