All week, there was a buzz of excitement in the air that could only come from one thing: school spirit! As you know, this week was Oakton’s Annual Homecoming Spirit Week. We had four themed days: Tacky Tourist day, Groutfit day, Denim day, and Neon day, showcasing the Oakton community’s spirit just in time for the Homecoming dance on Saturday.

“This year, we wanted to do spirit days that were more accessible to students, so we could try to get the whole student body involved,” Mr. McCulla, Oakton’s leadership teacher, said. The simpler (still fun!) spirit days this year were decided on by the leadership class, who succeeded in getting more students to join.

Tacky Tourist Tuesday lit up the Oakton halls with colorful Hawaiian shirts, big sunglasses, cameras, maps, and even fanny packs. Students and teachers alike went all out in their cheesiest tourist outfits, posing for pictures everywhere. To find clothing to wear, people would raid their family members’ closets in search of the perfect Hawaiian shirt.

Groutfit day inspired even more participants, flooding the school with the color grey. It was a perfectly fitting spirit day, allowing students to have much needed comfort in their grey sweats as they took the PSATs.

Denim day inspired people to wear not only blue jeans, but jackets, overalls, shirts, and dresses made of denim! One student got super creative and made their own denim jacket out of a pair of jeans.

Friday’s Neon day was the most colorful of them all! Luminescent yellows, bright pinks, and lime greens were spotted all around the school.

Though spirit week seems like a fun excuse to dress up (and it is!) it’s much more than that. Wearing fun outfits, matching with the rest of the school, is a great way to boost morale and have fun in the midst of the challenging school year. It bonds together students and teachers alike, and is a great chance for people to just have fun and get excited for homecoming! It’s a time to be proud of our school.

“The importance of spirit week is to show the school that while we have everything else going on, and everybody’s going in different directions, that they can take a week and come together,” said McCulla.

Coming together is exactly what we did these past few days, during one of Oakton’s best spirit weeks yet.