Lame Jokes to Spirit Week

“Knock, knock,” I spoke into the microphone that day in the lounge.
“Who's there?” Came a chorus of voices from the Grade 10 student body.
“Kallie.”
“Kallie who?”
I waited momentarily for the words to sink in.
Then, when they finally understood, my fellow peers laughed happily and loudly at the lame joke my brother and I had derived from our last name, “Hu”.
This was me back in the June of 2009 when I stood in front of the whole Grade 10 populace of R.C. Palmer Secondary School. Why had I decided to tell a horridly bad joke to all of my peers? Simply put, I was running for Grade 10 Representative for Student Council. Though it was not the most mature and intelligent way to draw attention to your election speech, it was a very effective one. During the rest of my speech, I spoke of how I wanted to help bring fresh ideas to Student council and it's events. Things like school dances and functions were on the top of my list, but one of the most important points to me was the one about Spirit Weeks. I had often taken part of spirit week back in grade eight, when I was a gleaming eyed and bushy tailed eager beaver suddenly tossed into a pool of high school adolescence; but as I entered grade nine I lacked the thoughtful participation I would usually bring to Spirit weeks. I found myself too lazy to follow through with all the suddenly pronounced and sometimes outrageous spirit days that were advertised in hugely painted posters in the lounge. I found spirit week somewhat of a hassle for I had a busy schedule with lots of incentive homework to worry about. But, most of all, I found that the spirit days were just not interesting anymore and were slightly repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I still partook in the celebration from time to time but there was something monotonous about it. From this, I was given the thought that maybe I should contribute my own ideas for spirit week. I had friends who were in Student council already that could deliver the ideas to council, but then I thought that I could definitely do more in helping Palmer's student body have some fun and show it's spirit (and I mean not just through spirit weeks). So then I stood in front of my grade in June and stumbled through my “lame-joke” speech, and I became a member of Student council. When I was in student council, though, I learned that figuring out spirit week days were actually a very difficult task. There are so many variables to consider about the students, time of year, and difficulty level of each day while trying to keep it creative. Also, it was something that had to have the majority vote in the council. Ideas that are creative and interesting for the entire school are hard to come by and the Student council puts in a lot of effort to try to make these ideas succeed through advertisements and lunch events. Now, I know many of these advertisements are not heard (for example, in the announcements) and that some days are hard for people to do (for example, pajama day for the people who do not own pajamas), but I've seen that if we can get the whole lounge to be bathed in a neon glow from their clothing on tight and bright day, or if we see a sea of raging monsters strutting down the runway on Halloween, or even if we just have people eating caramelized onions and wasabi cupcakes, that we can really join Palmer together as a community that has spirit. And, in the end, this is the definite goal of spirit week.