by Vera Jirnov
Friday, March 17th, Sophomore Gerald Wilson was surprised to be pulled out of class for a birthday party in the Trojan Commons. The reason Gerald was so surprised was that his birthday is actually October 28th.
About a week before the surprise, the freshman class was brainstorming a way to pull a practical joke on the high school which would be fun for everyone involved. We ended up coming up with the idea of throwing a surprise birthday party, not on their birthday. From there deciding whom to surprise was easy. Somebody suggested Gerald, and everyone else agreed.
Freshman Brooke Edder “was in charge of making sure that everyone brought everything.” Though Brooke said that the planning was a little bit stressful, she thought that the prank “was really fun” overall.
What was interesting to know was what was going through Gerald's mind during all of this. Since Gerald studies fencing, he thought that he was getting pulled out of class “for fixing my fencing ID.” Once everyone had surprised him he reached the conclusion that everyone was just simply confused.
Freshman Ella Blu Van mentioned that the party “seemed like it lightened the mood because we did it at 10:30 am on a Friday.” What the freshman class learned from this was that not all practical jokes have to have negative outcomes. Sometimes pulling a practical joke can simply lighten the mood and cheer everyone up.
Brooke said that she didn't “think it was harmful at all” and that “a lot of the time pranks and jokes can be harmful” but this one wasn't “like that at all.” Ella agreed: “it not only helped the other students to boost their mood but it was also fun to plan,” she said.
Finding easy, simple ways to cheer up the school is harmless and fun. Brooke thinks that if we did things like this “more, then maybe the high school will be a little bit closer.”