A look at the Decorating of the Freshman Hallway

By: Forest Langhorne

Leesburg, VA- With the finale of the 2011 homecoming spirit week bonanza, students were scurrying to buff up their hallways in an effort to prove their superiority and cement their hallways in Tuscarora history.  After the 7 hour work-a-thon Thursday night and last minute detailing Friday morning, on top of the days of prior preparation before it, the class hallways were finally unveiled on Friday morning.  Chief among the competitors for best hallway was the freshman class hallway, located in the foreign language wing.  When revealed, the past week of hard work on the part of the freshman class became immediately obvious.
Work was kicked off Tuesday after school, when the students who were collaborating on the design and production of the hallway began preparing decorations and gathering supplies for the work ahead. Preparations were continued the following day, as the freshmen’s efforts became increasingly hurried as the Thursday night completion deadline neared.
When work entered the third and final night, the freshmen, along with the rest of the classes, kicked up the pace, working for 7 straight hours Thursday night to finish their hallway.
When the hallway was finally revealed Friday morning, the foreign language hallway depicted scenes of spaceships flying through space, robots, and other weird entities that typically accompany a futuristic theme.
Despite all of this, the freshman class missed out on the prestigious spot of best hallway in the school, losing to the nightmare-themed senior hallway and the fairy tale sophomore hallway.  However, the freshman class didn’t go home entirely sore-hearted, as they barely lost to the junior class and their sweet dreams theme, posting major competition for third place.
Still, some people expressed doubts as to the worthiness of the freshman hallway.  “I felt that it was very sad…it looked like they didn’t have a plan, just like the junior hallway,” junior Eric Grimm said about the freshman hallway, despite agreeing that it was apparent that they put in lot’s of work in to the production of the decorations.
However, all of this work, planned or not, was rendered meaningless by the events of Friday’s first block.  In an effort to conform to fire code set by the fire marshal, all of the class hallway decorations had to be taken down.  While not something that could be avoided, many people in all classes felt very let down by the “take-down.” Many people did not even get to see their class hallway, and others who collaborated on the production felt very disappointed to see their work removed after so many hours spent making it.  Still, minus this year’s senior class, all the classes will have another chance at it next year, and many people are already primed for another go.