“Hey, tomorrow is spirit day…are you dressing up?”

“I’m not sure…what even is the theme?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll dress up if you do.”

Ah, it is the coveted night before spirit week. You text all your friends to see if anybody has the right amount of school pride to dress up the next day. You could just dress up, but you’re too afraid of standing out in a crowd of averagely dressed Lancers.

When did spirit weeks become lame? Elementary school’s spirit weeks had every student –and teacher– dressing up in pajamas or flaunting crazy hair. Students would look forward to a chance to wear out-of-the-ordinary clothes and break the mundane. Nowadays, if a stranger were to enter CHS on a spirit day, it would just look like every other day. Students would rather wear the usual jeans and a t-shirt than show up, alone, in comfy pajamas for PJ day.

Why is there a stigma attached to dressing up? There is nothing wrong with showing pride, and finding something to wear is never very hard. Students haven’t caught on that spirit days are for the students. We are supposed to enjoy high school, and days like these are supposed to unify the campus and students. After all, who would pass up a chance to wear pajamas to school?

Part of the problem lies in somewhat inaccessible spirit days like jungle day. Even if you don’t have any animal print to dress up for the jungle-themed day, then make up for the participation failure by being even more spirited the next day.

Dressing does not require a great effort either. Wear a shirt with an anchor on it for Sail the Seas day. Even a blue shirt would suffice. If at least half the school dresses up (even subtly) we will look more unified and everybody will be less embarrassed about it. Besides, dressing up is more fun when you coordinate with friends.

We have many opportunities to express Lancer pride: football games, pep rallies, assemblies, pretty much any event where one could simply wear a purple shirt. But when it comes to any more effort, Lancers fall short, leaving only the extra-enthusiastic  few to make up for it.

In the end, whether or not you want to show Lancer pride is your choice. Spirit days are more fun if you immerse yourself and dress up with your friends. Don’t think twice about it, just participate.