By Megan Cohen

The third week of school is usually reserved for adjusting to new sleep schedules and coping with the fact that summer is officially over. But instead, we spent that week dressing up as Disney characters and decorating our hallways. With the big homecoming game falling on September 18th, Tuscarora had no choice but to have spirit week start the Monday before. This is the earliest homecoming has ever taken place, and although it’s timing was out of our control this year, we should see to it this doesn’t happen again.

Let’s just say you love Tuscarora. Husky apparel is overflowing from your closet, you go to every football game, you’re the loudest at the pep rally. Tell me, hypothetical Tuscarora-lover, were you happy to be in school on the third week? Most likely not. As I said, you’re still trying to deal with the fact that you can’t sleep in anymore and you’ll have homework every night. So how can you be expected to garner enough enthusiasm and spirit to make homecoming successful?

Granted, the senior class seemed to have no problem bringing home the spirit stick this year, but they deviate slightly from the norm. It’s their last homecoming ever―of course they want to make the most of it. When it comes to everyone else, they may not be as passionate about Tuscarora, but not because they’re apathetic. It’s simply because it’s too soon in the school year to get excited for an event that is centered around school spirit.  

One particular victim of this year’s early homecoming was the freshman class. Think about it: they just got here! It’s the third week of school, yet they’re already being thrown into the wild world of homecoming with no time to get acclimated to their new environment. It can be difficult to take pride in your school when you’ve only been attending for ten days, let alone when you still wish summer vacation was in session.

As for spirit week and the dance itself, everything came together quite nicely, thanks to the efforts of the SCA. It’s timing seemed to have no effect on its quality. But homecoming isn’t just about how nice the decorations look or how good the music sounds, it’s about the students that are proud to be Huskies and want to have a good time.

Again, there’s no one to blame for our early homecoming, so the point of this statement is not to tell someone they messed up. It’s to explain why something like homecoming doesn’t work at just any time in the school year. While we still managed to pull it off this early, it could have been better had it been a bit later in the season. If anything, the year so far has proven that Tuscarora can deal with anything that is thrown our way.