With homecoming quickly approaching, high schools begin to prepare for the revered event by establishing spirit days, attending pep rallies, creating homecoming proposal posters, and a Lake Ridge favorite, decorating the hallways. This homecoming tradition consists of each class, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors, being assigned a hallway in which they have to decorate based on a theme given by the Student Council. 

This year freshmen received a jungle theme, sophomores a beach theme, juniors a mountain theme, and seniors a city theme. Tensions are jovially high because this event is not only an opportunity to decorate with friends, but also to win the Lake Ridge annual homecoming hallway contest. 

Once the themes are announced for each class, the hard work begins! Junior, Hannah Albin, showed some concern towards the mountain theme, when her class’s hallway was announced. 

“When I found out, I was like what on earth are we gonna do with mountains because they are just mountains! My friends and I were trying to figure out ways we could make it something more,” said Albin.

On the other hand, Freshman, Hannah Kuthe, wasn’t nervous about her class’s theme and what they could do to really make their hallway stand out.

“I was confident that we could decorate well. I thought it was really cool. I liked the detail we could put in and loved the jungle theme. When they announced our hallways I was overall really happy, which is good because I’m eager to win and I am very competitive,” said Kuthe. 

Members of the student council work extremely hard to make sure the decoration of hallways is a successful process. Teachers as well as students recognize the efforts of the student council. Senior and student council member, Avery Saldivar, knows that planning homecoming events can be time consuming and difficult to please everyone, but is proud that the student council can get it done.

“Student council does a really good job on collaborating on ideas and making sure everyone’s voices are heard. We come up with great ideas whether that be for hallways or spirit days. It’s important to collaborate and that’s what we do,” said Saldivar.

Teacher, Stephany Stephens, admires the student council for their planning and the accommodations they made for students.

“I appreciate the student council getting us the supplies we needed, like the butcher paper and paint. Getting us air conditioning and unlocking the building in advance was also nice. That way kids were able to come and go and not sweat to death. I liked their idea of drawing different themes so that we all got to decorate a different hallway. It allowed students to take what they got and be creative,” said Stephens. 

Students who are yearning to win the contest, made sure to have a plan regarding their decoration process. Students had a meeting to communicate ideas and then had the weekend to decorate. There was anxiety concerning the success of their hallway because of limited time. Sophomore and Class President, Isabella Silerio, stressed that her classmates attend the meeting and decoration days, ready to work and win. 

“Luckily, there were a lot of people who came to decorate, but it was difficult to make sure everyone had a job to do, to get everybody rallied and to work together. My personal ideas were making the entire hallway one big beach, the rest of my officers contributed the under the sea theme. I really want to win the competition because last year as freshmen we did not win,” said Silerio. 

Albin’s concerns consist of the reactions of her peers. Some students seemed unsatisfied with their final product as a class, and what Albin really wanted was for everyone to provide a helping hand. 

“If you’re unsatisfied then you should have showed up to the meeting, presented your ideas, and came to help us decorate when we posted on our Lake Ridge Instagram page to show up. We didn’t have enough people, there were about 5 people that single handedly did the whole hallway. I understand if you just couldn’t be there, but don’t complain about the final product if you didn’t come help,” said Albin. 

Besides the intense contest, students find value in the other aspects of decorating their hallways. Senior, Avery Saldivar, tries to not get caught up in the competitiveness because she knows that these are some of her last opportunities to enjoy high school traditions before graduating.

“I am eager to win the contest, but I can give it to the freshman that did a pretty good job with their hallway. What I was looking forward to most while I was decorating on Saturday was being with my friends all day at school and spending time with my classmates enjoying our last year of hallway decorating for homecoming. The most important aspect of homecoming activities in high school is to enjoy it with your friends because it’s going to come and go,” said Saldivar.

Stephens spent hours after school and during the weekend helping her students prepare their hallway. Although at times stressful her experience with the sophomores was worth it.

“I enjoyed just getting to hang out with the sophomores outside of school, getting to know them, letting them be creative outside their school work, and seeing all their creative ideas come to life,” said Stephens.