The Greatest Homecoming On Earth

At Mira Mesa High School, homecoming is the BIGGEST school event of the year.  Students, staff and families look forward to this four part event every year.  With the help of the community, ASB spends early mornings and late nights at the school to provide the best homecoming yet. 

On October 6th, after an exhausting month of preparing, it was finally time to kick off Homecoming Spirit Week.  Students dress up out of the ordinary and participate during lunch time activities.  Every day during lunch there is a table set up with music for people to collect spirit points, hoping to win an ice cream party.  Monday's dress up was Marauder Mimes, students wore black and white clothing.  The activity was The Ultimate Circus Sideshow, similar to Fear Factor, students put their faces in unknown food and ate disgusting food items.  On Tuesday students were to be the Ringling Bros and have a temporary twin for the day.  The activity was Hungry Hungry Lions which required students to kick as many balls as possible in their given corner.  Wednesday's dress up was Magnificent Marauders, a day where students had a reason to dress up.  The activity was Hold Onto Your Seats, musical chairs with a twist.  Thursday's dress up was You Belong In the Circus Day, students wore polka dots, stripes, etc.  The activity was Clown Car Overload, classes stuffed themselves in a van for an allotted amount of time.  Friday's dress up was Class Colors and the activity was Circus Parade, where class floats were admired.  Although only students participate in spirit week, it is important because it is the first event to hype them up for the game.

With one event done, next up was pep rally.  The gym was decorated to look like the inside of a carnival tent.  At 10;51, when headsets were on, the doors opened.  Students rushed in wearing black, white, yellow and blue and sat with their class.  There were circus acts and activities.  Dance team performed and cheer taught the classes multiple cheers.  The royal court was announced as well as nominees for King and Queen.  Class advisers walked out and gave speeches.  It then ended with drum line and confetti canyons.  You could tell from all of the screaming that pep rally was a success.

As soon as rally ended, ASB had to clean up and move on to the next event, game.  Mira Mesa High was playing against Lincoln High.  Instead of a blue out, the student section was a white out.  The 500 people to enter were given blue and yellow powder or light sticks.  During half time, students opened up their bag of powder and threw it up in the air.  Royal Court drove around in convertibles, King and Queen were announced.  Class floats were displayed and classes performed thirty second dances.  At the end of the fourth quarter, ASB started getting ready for the after show.  Screens were put up and acts were brought out.  Other groups were supposed to perform, but due to time, they were cut only dance team performed.  It was a devastating loss of 7-20, but it was a memorable night t that ended with spectacular fireworks.

The last event was homecoming dance.  At 8 o'clock on Saturday night, students lined up with their dates to check in at the dance, A Gatsby Getaway.  The gym was decorated with murals of metallic and shimmer, balloons were hung to ceilings.  The decoration created a 1920's vibe with carnival accents.  If students didn't want to dance there were carnival games, caricature artists and photo booths.  11 o'clock was the end of a four part event.

Although ASB complained about the endless hours spent on homecoming, nothing is better than seeing everyone with a smile on their face because of a successful event. There were many pros and cons to each event, but each event is a learning experience.  Regardless, it is obvious that it was The Greatest Homecoming On Earth.

Community Post #1

The article, "Exposing Hidden Bias At Google" by Farhad Manjoo, addresses the concern of gender inequality at Google.  The lack of diversity of male and female within a company is due to many factors, such as racism, sexism and hidden bias.  People are aware of this ongoing problem and have attempted to fix it. However, how do we know if the efforts to improve diversity are working?

In an attempt to increase the amount of diversity at Google, they have had numerous workshops for their employees to attend. However, they don't have a set plan or goal.  As said in the article, "Google is attacking the problem with its considerable resources and creativity.  But it does not have a timeline for when the company's work force might become representative of the population, or whether it will ever get there."  If Google doesn't have an estimated date where equality and diversity is reached, how do we know that they actually want to fix the problem?  Just because they are trying to find a solution, doesn't mean it's making a difference.

In another attempt to increase the amount of awareness, Dr. Welle constructed a 90-minute lecture.  As said by him in his training, "everyone is a little bit racist or sexist."  Sadly, racism and sexism have become an every day habit in today's society.  There are people whom you could classify as racist or sexist due to their blunt remarks.  These people are told time and time again that they are racist or sexist.  However, there are people who's comments go unnoticed, yet they are definitely racist or sexist.  These people are the ones that do the most harm.  It's called hidden bias.

Of the two attempts to improve diversity, did any work?  There was no real evidence that workshops affected diversity at Google.  However, there is evidence that Dr. Welle's lecture worked.  The comments that went unnoticed were getting called on as hidden bias.  Eventually, Google will be extremely diverse and so will society.