Friday, March 13, 2020. This date lives on in the minds of almost every single Trojan student on campus. It marks the day that our lives completely changed forever because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it also marks the day that our Trojan Pride officially came to a stop. With three full months of school now practically under our belts, this is the perfect time to pause and reflect on how being back together on campus truly feels. Both our freshman and sophomore classes arrived in August with zero experience about how to be high school students. This has never happened before in the history of Lincoln High School. I firmly believe that the family aspect of Lincoln High was missing because we roughly had 1600 Trojans who had never been on campus before. It takes time to build new friendships, and we had 1600 new kids trying to locate where the library was located.

I do think it is worth mentioning that as the pandemic forced us to stay at home with our Chromebooks, the mental strain that every Trojan faced by having his/her friends taken away was a major setback. As teenagers, we digressed in our social behaviors. Simply said – we got too comfortable just being by ourselves and getting absorbed by our technology. We forgot how to interact with one another. Personally, I have been amazed at my own lack of communication skills. I thought that it would be easy just like flipping on a switch, but sadly that has not been the case. As Trojans, we simply needed more time to hang out together. Forty minutes of socialization time at lunch only allows you to hang out with your immediate peer group. The entire Trojan Family needed a shot in the arm, and that shot finally came on Friday.

Homecoming 2021 came to its conclusion with the Homecoming Rally and Carnival. The entire school got to enjoy an energy buzzing 90 minute rally inside Trojan Gym. The rally featured a Star Wars light saber battle, coordinated dance numbers by BSU, LLL and the Trojan Cheer Team, and others, and the royalty court being introduced. The dancing, the singing, and most importantly the laughter all came flooding back just like it was October 2019. Friday morning and Friday afternoon was the “Trojan Family” event that the entire campus needed for us to remember what Trojan Pride is all about.

“The rally was fun and very interactive,” said Leo Cueno. “On a scale of one to 10, I would have to give this homecoming rally an eight!”

On Friday afternoon from 12:15 PM to 3:00 PM, the Carnival was packed with approximately 2,800 Trojans shopping for delicious treats like pizza, hot dogs, dumplings, nachos and French fries. If you needed something sweet, then homemade items such as cotton candy, apple pie, cake pops, ice cream, or macaroon cookies would have made any sweet tooth buyer happy. The Carnival, a stand-alone homecoming centerpiece, survived all of the weather changes and provided the students with a great experience.

“The Carnival went better than everyone expected. There was a lot of stress (the changing weather) around it at first, but there was a good turnout. The only downside was that the booths sold out really quickly and the lines were massively long,” said Dustin Ryza.

Lastly, I do have an idea on how to keep the momentum of Homecoming moving forward throughout the school year. I strongly suggest that every Friday during lunch we feature some sort of Student vs. Staff event like dance-offs or carnival games. We need to make each Friday feel like a miniature Homecoming. We need fun, interactive games where the students and staff both want to participate in. We need our clubs to take turns setting up food booths and selling fun snacks, treats and lunch specials. (This is also a great way for our clubs to keep making money throughout the year.) The Gazebo needs to feature the “DJ Central Zone” as blood pumping, energized and PG-13 pulsating tunes blast from its speakers. Music drives any party and we need music that is adult appropriate, yet fun and exciting to listen to for the students. Homecoming 2021 was exactly what we needed to try and get the old feeling of Trojan Pride back into our system.

“Spirit week was a success. I saw a lot of my friends participate and Pajama Day was my absolute favorite,” said Rochelle Howard.  But, we can’t stop now. We need to keep building on the energy created from Homecoming 2021!