My life is a beautiful adventure that God intended for me to live out to the fullest; remember that every day is a gift and should not be taken for granted.

It’s that time of year again. The flamboyant proposals, the multitude of heartaches, the perfect dress with those stunning heels, the time where it’s both laughter and joy or tears and depression. What am I talking about? The most dreaded or the most anticipated week of the year: Homecoming week.  

Everyone has an opinion about Homecoming (bad or good) but no one can deny that Homecoming unites people. It creates something within people and their school that cannot really be described. As Fossil Ridge High School begins the ascension into Homecoming week, it is tradition to have Spirit Days on the week of Homecoming. Spirit Days, though, can be a tricky business because you have to have the right theme each day in order to truly inspire people to participate. At FRHS, we have always been spirit challenged, I mean, yes, we have a lot of students who participate, but there are too many Debbie-downers who say that Spirit Days are lame. If you are one of those people, I guess I kind of see where you are coming from, but isn’t the whole point of Spirit Days to make everyone be and act a little bit goofy? I mean, what would be the fun of super-serious spirit days where no one has the guts to make a fool of themselves? Honestly, I love spirit days because they’re one of the only days out of the year where friend and foe are united on a common ground.

In the past three years at FRHS, I have slowly lost my motivation to participate in spirit days, but I decided this year I might as well go out with a bang and participate in every single spirit day. Now, I am telling you what, it takes confidence to put on spirit day clothing. I already dress a little bit different than everyone else, but taking crazy style to a new level can prove to be a challenge, even for someone who doesn’t care what people think of them. So when a friend tells me that she thinks Spirit Days are lame and doesn’t know why anyone participates in them, I get a little frustrated, because unlike her, who didn’t have the nerve to dress up, I do look a little silly. Oddly, it’s not their almost dish on me and everyone else who participates that gets my panties in a wad, but it’s the fact that they are a senior and it is the last high school Homecoming week of their life and they are acting all high and mighty. There are already “lasts” that I regret not participating in during my senior year, like powder-puff or going to the last Fort Collins versus FRHS football game, but going back and rewriting those mistakes is impossible now. I have to learn from them and vow to not let another chance slip by again. For me, Homecoming week spirit days and activities fit under the category of “lasts,” and thereby, through association I can’t in good conscience choose not to participate because I know one day I’ll look back on high school and wonder why I was so scared, nervous or “too cool” to participate and inevitably regret it. 

So I challenge you not to just write off something because it seems lame, take a chance. Make your hair a little taller, make your clothes a little odder, make your smile a little bigger and know that by choosing to have a positive attitude about your school and not carewho people think you are, that in the long run you are making the most positive impact on the world. It’s rare that fear and uncertainty inspires people to be the best they can be, but rather the most empowering thing that you can be is confident.