To me, this week is pretty ordinary. I’m stressing about midterms and looking forward to spring break in two weeks. However, as I was scrolling through my never-ending Instagram feed, it was flooded with pictures of kids still attending my high school in their spirit week costumes. I saw a lot of hippies and 90’s grunge outfits until I inferred that the theme of the day was decade day.

At my high school, spirit week was the best week of the year (all schools feel this way--but I truly believe my high school has the most intense spirit week). Weeks of preparation go into creating the best costume, arguing with your class to come up with a theme creative enough to beat the rest of the school, and going to the notorious “spirit dance” practices multiple times a week. It’s a lot of work for one week of fun, which ends up being mostly stress. I remember counting down the days until spirit week only two short years ago, being excited to see my friends all dressed up and of course taking cute pictures with them. And suddenly, I was sitting in my dorm, scrolling through Instagram, not even aware that spirit week was happening.

This all felt a little bizarre at first. I was really just amazed that something so important to me was now meaningless. I, of course, had to go back in my camera roll and look at all my old pictures from my past spirit weeks. I smiled and laughed as all the memories kept pouring back into my mind. I saw pictures with old friends who I lost touch with since graduation. I couldn’t help but wonder how they’re doing and if they ever think about all the fun times we shared.

I would not consider myself to be one who misses high school by any means. My sister tells me about the drama and the stress of being in a building for seven hours a day with people you have known since kindergarten and that in itself makes me cringe. However, I was starting to feel a tiny bit of nostalgia during this spirit week.

In high school, one of the most important things to me was that my class won spirit week. I ensured that if my class won, I would be content forever. My class won both junior year and senior year, which was so much fun, don’t get me wrong. However, that’s not what I remember from spirit week. I remember the funny acts in the Variety Show. I remember painting my body black to fit with my class color, because wearing a black t-shirt simply wasn’t enough apparently. I remember the fun times spent with my friends and the bonds I created with others in my class through spirit dance and spirit week in general.

As I sit here and scroll through Instagram, seeing pictures of others just a few years younger than me, I hope that they are cherishing every single moment spent with those closest to them. Even if they are stressed or annoyed with their class, it’s really fun to look back on. Pretty soon they will be in their college dorms, reminiscing on the good times that will fly by in the blink of an eye.