Last Friday Night Lights, last homecoming dance, last spirit week; so many “lasts” surround the week of homecoming for seniors in high school. As I’m getting ready for the homecoming dance, I realize that was the last time I will be able to participate in spirit week. It’s my last time getting ready with my friends. My last time taking pictures with my cute bouquet. Suddenly, the realization that my high school life is coming to an end is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Yes, there still is prom later in the school year. But prom and homecoming are not the same. The homecoming dance is held at Metea, and all four grades are invited to come, whereas Prom is typically just seniors, and the dance is not held at Metea. Homecoming is less formal, and when compared to Prom, it’s more about just having fun with friends than going with a date and dressing up nicely.
At first thought, seniors may doubt going to homecoming since they have already had three other chances to go. But that doubt fades, and nostalgia takes over. Homecoming for seniors is less of a school event; it’s more of a victory lap. And it’s not just about the dance, too.
The week of the homecoming includes spirit week and the homecoming football game. Spirit week is often an event students don’t participate in because they’re lazy, they don’t want to, or they feel embarrassed because so many of their peers don’t dress up with them. But as a senior, that insecurity and overthinking fade a little. So many seniors, including myself, dressed up during the week according to the spirit week planned. We did it for fun and to relish in our last year of high school.
Then, at the end of spirit week, there’s Friday. The Friday with the last Friday Night Lights on our home field and our last homecoming Friday Night Lights. Even though Metea’s varsity football team lost the game against Naperville Central, it was still a memorable night. The game went into overtime, and our football team gave its best effort.
Juniors, sophomores, and freshmen all have more high school football games to go to next year, but seniors won’t. So many of the football players walked off the field looking down, finally coming to terms that it really is their senior year. So many students in the student section made sure to take photos together in their cute camo. There truly is nothing like high school football games.
As Friday comes to an end, Saturday contains the actual homecoming dance. Like many others probably did, I woke up early and got Starbucks with my friends, then we went and got our hair done together. We made TikToks, made our bouquets, took photos, talked, and then eventually got dressed and did our makeup for the dance.
When we arrived at the place we wanted to take photos, it was windy and cold outside, yet we took our time and took as many photos as we could. We wanted to remember and be able to reminisce on this day.
The actual dance at school was like it always is: hot, sweaty, and loud. However, we stayed longer than we did in the past years. We danced and sang to songs we didn’t know.
