Nearly everyone at Lake Forest Academy has heard at one point or another that our school suffers from a “school spirit” issue. These feelings are not just felt by a small minority of students at LFA. In last month’s issue of The Spectator, a survey of students at LFA found that a whopping 52.4% of students at LFA found that the school lacked in school spirit. While some may see this blanket statement as an over-simplification, it is clear that LFA has issues when it comes to sparsely attended fall and winter dances, low crowds at some athletic events, and certain house cup competition events with little to no participants. However, next year presents a chance for meaningful change on this front.

If you look at the student body that will be attending LFA next year, it is quite honestly fascinating. There is going to be a freshman class that is brand new (as freshman classes usually are), a sophomore class that has only experienced LFA during this strange pandemic year, a junior class who has never had a full normal year at LFA (spring of their freshman year was cut short due to the beginning of the pandemic, and a senior class that is the only class in the school to have experienced a regular year at LFA.

For the most part, the culture at LFA, and at many other schools, is passed down from the upperclassmen to the underclassmen. When students come to LFA for the first time, they look to the upperclassmen to know which events are fun for students to go to, which events barely anyone shows up to, and how the students at LFA interact with the school and with each other.

Although people complain about barely anyone attending certain at school events, the only way to fix this issue (as simple as it may sound) is to have people begin attending these events again regardless of hearing things like “no one goes to the fall dance.”

The 2021-2022 academic year offers students a chance to redefine the community at LFA because so few students at the school next year will have experienced the school that existed before the pandemic. If used correctly, next year could be a chance for the students at LFA to build the school culture that they have longed for during the past couple of years and create new traditions and attitudes that carry LFA to a new era of student life.

By doing this, students have a chance to create a school that goes beyond just meeting there academic needs, but also having consistent moments of fun to look forward to throughout the school year. Events like the students vs. faculty basketball game, the end of the year talent show, and certain sports events throughout the year already partially fulfil this student need, there is still lots of room for improvement in this area at our school.

For the graduating seniors this year, we won’t have another opportunity to go to anymore prep hockey games or basketball games, to go to any more proms or high school dances, or even experience another normal year at LFA. So at the very least, when everything goes back to normal, for the students who are leaving at the end of this year, enjoy the things that we have all missed.