Homecoming Parade

Every year my high school has a homecoming parade to promote school spirit, and for all the other cliché reasons senior high schools have parades. This sticks out to me as a prime example of a festival in my community because we did do it for all those reasons, but we also did it for so much more. I can remember the parade coming through our neighborhood when I was young and looking forward to being a cheerleader on the cheerleader float, or maybe a dancer and the drill team float, or possibly a soccer player on the soccer float. By my senior year in high school I was little tired of the whole shenanigan, but I knew tiny ones, younger brothers and sisters of my friends, who would be watching and I wanted them to have older teenagers to look up to just as I had. It was truly a whole family event. Local businesses donated money, the local fire department let the varsity football time ride in the parade on one of their fire trucks. It was a community coming together. It was tradition. Though we all knew our varsity football team was going to loose on the field Friday night, no one ever took the parade lightly. Teachers, principals, students, parents, business owners, family, and friends were all in the same place at the same time having a wonderful time and just celebrating each other.

Discussion about grades, neighbors who didn't like each other, teen rebellion, divorce, family feuds, adolescent drama, and stress didn't exist. It was as though for a short evening it had all vanished. Adults put on happy faces and smiled at other adults they literally couldn't stand. Students of different ages and from different clicks came together maybe speaking for the first time all year to successfully get the parade underway. Now as I explain it, I see how fake it was on the surface, but we honestly fell for it and believed in it entirely while we were in the midst of the commotion. Maybe the problem was that even in such a time of celebration all these things were only put on the back burner; they hadn't actually disappeared. Everyone was pretending, and the next day all the difficulty, intensity, hassle and work would come rushing back in our lives.

I think the overhanging question is whether or not it's beneficial? Is pointless to suppress and hide all of the detrimental in the dark? Or do we all prosper some by jumping into a perfect world even if it is just for an evening? I think the answer is different for everyone, but I also believe it's important that it continues for the children in our community who are growing up and stumbling across all these realities of life for their first time. They just need to remember to be cautious because with all this rushing over you like gush of water you have to be careful not too drowned.

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