High School Students Prepare for Homecoming with a New Norm of Homecoming Proposals

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AHS students are getting asked to Homecoming, which is on October 1st at 7:30 pm in the West gym

The Homecoming football game and Hawkfest is September 29th and the Homecoming dance is Saturday October 1st. This year’s Homecoming theme is Hawaiian.

Hawkfest is a festival run by DECA at Arrowhead. It happens before the football game with inflatables, rides, games, music, and food. According to arrowheadschools.org, the event runs from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm and all money from the event goes towards MDA summer camp, HAWS (Humane Animal Welfare Society) and the Arrowhead DECA Chapter.

The Homecoming football game, which is after Hawkfest, features Arrowhead against Kettle Moraine and kickoff is 7:00. The gator theme for the game is USA.

Homecoming tickets are $15 and can be purchased September 19th through the 30th at lunch. Tickets will not be sold at the door this year and students must bring their school ID to get in. The dance is held in the AHS North Campus West gym from 7:30 to 11:30pm. Students can bring dates from other schools; however, a guest form must be filled out by September 30th and approved by the office.

There’s also spirit week leading up to Homecoming with the parade on Sunday September 25th at 4:30pm, movie night on Wednesday at 7:30pm on the football field, a pep rally during school on Friday, and each day of the school week is a different dress-up theme. Monday is pajama/ crazy hair and stuff animal day, Tuesday is twin or famous pairs day,  Wednesday is Hawaiian themed, Thursday is Superhero or villain, and Friday is a red out.

With all this comes the pressure to find a date. The 2016 norm for getting a date is a proposal often accompanied with creative posters, food, flowers or gifts.

Maggie Newlin, an Arrowhead senior has yet to be asked but she says, “It’s not just Arrowhead. It’s other schools like Kettle Moraine too that do extravagant proposals now. Yesterday, I witnessed someone getting asked with a giant sign and flowers there. It was really cute.”

Maria Calandranis, an Arrowhead senior posted on Instagram that she was asked by Junior Eamon Schiro with flowers and a poster that read “Homecoming? It’ll be lit” with a giant fire Pokemon drawn on it. The post was captioned, “what a catch.”

Emily Nettesheim, a junior, was additionally asked by senior Joe Kolanowski with a giant teddy bear in a T-shirt that said “HC?” which was seen on Instagram.

A Junior, Julia Van Horn, was asked by Jacob Julius, also a junior, with a Bath and Bodyworks candle and a poster that read, “It would be lit if you’d go to Hoco with me.”  A picture was posted to Instagram by Van Horn.

On social media, posts like these received feedback with dozens of comments and likes from Arrowhead students.

Jennifer Passler, an English teacher at Arrowhead, says this new norm of proposals is unnecessary and forces students into a whirlwind. The first person who did this kind of proposal was adorable and cool and that was their thing, says Passler, but now people are doing so when that may not be their thing because it is the new norm.

Passler says, “Every moment in life is incredible and miraculous and if we have to make every moment a firework display, it makes us restless with just existing and it lessens the regular moments. The pressure that everything has to be sparkly is doing us a disservice. Why can’t somebody just look me in the eye and ask me to homecoming privately.”