The brunt of our work is over, and we’re at the pinnacle of our senior year. We’re the Class of 2012, and you “wish you were one two!” So where’s the spontaneous lower quad senior BBQ? Where’s the grade-wide beach day? And where did our senior prank go?
Days before the historically designated senior prank day, members of the senior class posted ideas for the prank in the senior Facebook group.
Many of the ideas were rushed and poorly thought out, and most were at the expense of innocent underclassmen. We scrambled at the last minute and couldn’t even agree on what mean-spirited stunt to pull.
This cycle needs to be broken. Each year we senselessly mimic the seniors who wronged us the year before. We target the innocent below us, fueling their desires to wreak havoc when they get to be in our shoes. But these efforts are futile. We seniors need to shift our focus. A senior prank should stem from a place of humor and celebration. Opening juniors’ backpacks and misplacing their binders is just plain cruel. Moving the tables on the quad into a “2012” shape on the field would have been perfectly sufficient.
This, however, calls the administration to action. We were encouraged to “be creative” at class meeting the day before senior prank day. Yet we were flanked by armies of angry deans and security equipped with walkie-talkies in hand. We were told to “Drop the water balloons!” as if they were dangerous weapons.
While we’ll admit that our prank should have been more friendly, why was it made so difficult to unite as a class and do anything? Allow us to be seniors, and we’ll meet in the middle. We shouldn’t end on a sour note. At the urging of Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts, we should make our mark as a senior class remembered for our ingenuity. Still, if our intentions had been pure, the administration would have made it impossible anyway. Instead of babysitting us, work with us.
Ditch day was yet another example of our failed unity. What could have been a fun coordinated “All H-W seniors go to the beach!” day to celebrate how far we’ve come, was instead a day that highlighted how disjointed our senior class is. Participation was minimal, and many students were penalized by their teachers on quizzes and tests for missing class.
If we think we deserve a day off, we can settle with a grade-wide detention on an early Wednesday morning as punishment. Ditch day does not merit zeroes on tests though. We can make more of an effort to enhance our senior community with the help of the school.
It’s not over until it’s over. We still have one month to go, so let’s fry up some burgers in the Lower Quad, play music during break and decide as a group on the perfect token to deposit in President Thomas C. Hudnut’s hand at graduation.