Starting from mid-October, the High School Student Council at Seoul International School started advertising the start of the annual Spirit Week through High School Student Council class pages on Facebook and announcements through the school public address system. Although at most schools, Spirit Week tends to lead up to the Homecoming dance and game, our school decided to celebrate the climax of Spirit Week on Halloween because it is one of the few holidays the majority of students at our school actively celebrate and participate in. Though I wasn’t able to take part in the festivities of Spirit Week due to lack of time to prepare for it amid my busy test schedule, I was in awe of the increased school spirit our high school showed during the week; students were considerably more engaged in the events than they were last year. Hannah Son, sophomore at SIS, told Herald Tomorrow that “spirit week was a super positive experience …  was super exciting to get together with my friends and plan out what we were going to do for each day.”

 

The first event of Spirit Week was “Moojigae Monday,” which means “rainbow” in Korean. Student officers encouraged students to get together with 6 to 7 other friends to form a rainbow with a variety of colored shirts that would create a “rainbow.” In order to elevate the excitement for the beginning of Spirit Week, the student council offered any group of students who uploaded images of their rainbow pumpkin pie as a reward. When I first walked around school, I didn’t realize that Spirit Week was going on because students in the same rainbow group were walking around separately. However, when I later saw them huddled around each other or taking photos for Instagram to prove their participation online, I could clearly see that far more people than I expected were taking part in the first event.
 

The second event was “Twin Tuesday.” A staple part of almost every spirit week at any school, students showed a variety of interpretation of the event on the 30th. Whereas some students wore the exact same clothing as each other, a direct interpretation of the event, some students went for loosely matched outfits, such as white shirts and jeans or similar outfits in different colors, to approach the event on a more casual approach. Like many other events throughout Spirit Week, the HSSC collaborated with other clubs at SIS. For Twin Tuesday, the SIS STEM club and the HSSC promoted the idea of “finding a clone of oneself.”
 

The third and potentially most important day of Spirit Week was celebrating Halloween on Wednesday. Although not all students participated for the sake of Spirit Week, there were by far the most students participating on Wednesday than on any other day during the week. To bring even more Halloween cheer, the HSSC provided prizes to everyone who dressed up in a costume, as well as a grand prize for one lucky winner. To be honest, there weren’t that many people dressed up in my grade (the sophomore class). There were a moderate number of freshmen in costumes, but I could visibly notice that the vast majority of juniors and seniors were decked out in outfits inspired by movies and books throughout the day. 

 

Though there were two more days of Spirit Week up till November 2nd, I personally felt that the most impactful days were covered within the first three days. Although not many of my own friends participated in Spirit Week either, seeing my other classmates having fun while coordinating outfits made me regret not convincing my friends to get involved in Spirit Week together. Though I’m not yet aware of when the next Spirit Week will take place at SIS, I’ve become determined to actively show school spirit when I get the chance.

 

 

Rachel Lee
Grade 10

Seoul International School