by Chloe Kiparsky
Every high schooler was in agreement that it had been a long week. But it turns out that this kind of week provides unexpected delights. What I’m saying is that on Thursday, May 11, there was a snowball fight through the high school hallways.
For context, it HAD snowed the night before (in May? Seriously?), and it was senior Mica Hart’s 18th birthday. Parading around school in a homemade crown, she felt that the day was lacking that little birthday spark. Naturally, she decided to harness the snowy bleakness of outside.
“Let’s have a snowball fight in here, guys!!” she shouted. The few people sitting on the couch were puzzled but she had a vision. She bolted into a classroom and emerged victorious, in her arms an acrylic container full to the brim with colorful hacky sacks.
She threw one.
Another whizzed through the air.
Another.
Soon enough, we were engaged in a passionate “snowball” fight with the hacky sacks. As more kids emerged from their classrooms, they joined and joined and joined. Teachers came out to watch, some even joining, and sounds of delight, laughter, and the sandy thumps of hacky sacks (sometimes) hitting their marks filled the halls.
The stagnant, sweatpant-wearing mood was almost immediately sliced through by the colorful orbs whistling through the air. People were running around the school, hiding behind short walls, strategizing, and filling their arms with hacky sacks.
“After the laughter comes tears,” my great-grandmother used to say, and sure enough, the game ended when someone got hit in the eye. People went back to their classes, but even this moment felt positive. Everyone collaborated, searching nooks and crannies for the balls, peers checking in on the student that got hit, and people respecting the shift of mood.
The event could have easily turned bitter, causing teachers to ban hacky sack fights forever. But it didn’t. The positivity created by the fight lasted, and the change in mood from gloomy to goofy was delightful to witness. All signs that morning pointed to a grey, snowy day of May, but Mica brought a little birthday spark, and it illuminated us all.