With Spirit Week coming to a close, it is important to acknowledge how it draws the Whitney Young community together. Each day thousands of kids each with different social, racial, and economic backgrounds come together with a common theme in clothing. There also is a wide range of the level of engagement that Spirit Week draws. Some students are going all out in full costume, some have a simple t-shirt that fits the theme, and some have seemingly forgotten it was spirit week. Neil Rockey ‘22 remarked that, ”Yea, Spirit Week has never really interested me, and when I was in the AC [Academic Center] it was even further off my radar”. It seems the lowerclassmen are less engaged then the Juniors and Seniors.

Speaking of Seniors, on Thursday the Spirit Day was class color day and although it’s cool to see the rest of the grades matching, the real focus of class color day is Senior Blackout, an integral part of spirit week. This year’s senior blackout was a success and an inflatable obstacle course decided to make an appearance. Rob Postma ‘20 told me that, “When you’re a senior blackout day takes a whole new meaning, it’s just so fun” 

In addition to the inflatable obstacle course the stars of the show this year were the Seniorworld shirts designed and distributed by Gracie Silverstein and Matt Burzek. These shirts were particularly edgy because they had the f-word on the back. Despite complaints from Dr. Kenner herself, these shirts were everywhere on Thursday. Mika Cavanaugh ‘20 told me that, “The shirts were cool before Kenner didn’t like them and after she voiced her disapproval, well that just made the shirts cooler”. All in all this year’s spirit week was a resounding success, but year after year it shows the disconnect between the upperclassmen and the rest of the school.