Walking into school on Monday, the halls were filled with emptiness. It felt like something was missing. All the same teachers and students and classes and assignments and cafeteria food remained unchanged, but something was not right. Walking into school, you could feel the absence of spirit week.

Everyone went all out. From tutus to beaded necklaces to faint pace, every high school student embraced his or her pride for our school proudly in their dress.  

Kicking the week off with Jersey day, the pride for not just Wilton teams, but major league baseball, football, hockey and basketball players and teams flooded the school. Though our school is full of sports enthusiasts, even the ones who are not stepped it up. People in the hallways engaged in conversations about their favorite teams, and high fives were as plentiful as the leaves on the ground.

Tuesday, America day was a day everyone could easily dress for. I came to school in a regular outfit; a blue and white striped shirt and a long red sweater, thinking I was dressed perfectly. I walked into the school and immediately my confidence was replaced with a dreaded feeling of being underdressed. All I could see was red, white and blue, shown all the way from American flag leggings, to a flag used as a cape or sticking out of a backpack. I came home from school that day with blue eye black and beaded necklaces added to my outfit, and was ready to try again the next day.

The next day, class color day, transformed the halls of Wilton High School into 4 equal sections. It felt like stepping into a “Divergent” novel: every class was more enthusiastic than the last one, every color vibrant and plentiful. Everywhere I looked I saw flashes of grey, red, green and blue that were brilliant and everywhere.

I was ready for  a break from the dreaded task of showing enough spirit. The Wilton High School seniors, dressed in unanimously in togas and garlands, practically had enough spirit to support the entire grades. Reserved strictly for members of the graduating class, wearing a toga is a privilege and the senior took it into their hands with pride. The outfits were accompanied by ancient music that, drifting through the senior hall, made  walking down to math class a stroll through the town of Ancient Athens.

With only one day left to show my spirit, I knew I had to step it up. I walked into school with a bright blue and white tutu and over a purely blue and white outfit, ready to soar over the expected spirit level with soaring blue and white colors. But I was wrong. Blue and white socks, a warrior headdress, eye black, acrylic paint, hair spray– you name it, and someone was wearing it. An ocean of blue and white engulfed our school, spirit radiating from it in overwhelming amounts. The locker room was full of students getting spirited up together until 8:19. The girls walked out of it covered with handprints of paint from face to feet, wearing it proudly.

Wilton High School’s dedication to spirit is truly astounding. It occurred to me: what makes our school different from Middlebrook and other schools? Our sense of community. We didn’t dress up because we had to, we dressed up with our friends. We dressed up for the competition of wanting to be the best class, for our pride in our school and our class. Because when it comes down to it, we are not individual students, but a united group of Warriors, proud of our school, our class and our town.