By Jacqueline Risch
3.. 2.. 1.., we’ve graduated!! Well, not just yet. The seniors at TPA are working hard on college applications and the senior thesis, but are counting down the days until graduation night. In the meantime, they have some fun games and activities they do on the side to speed up the long weeks of class.
One of the famous traditions of senior year is the annual game of Senior Water Wars. One of TPA’s seniors, Nolan Nicholson, runs and manages the game and describes it as “a friendly battle amongst the class that requires a competitive nature to emerge victorious amongst peers and be the last two alive.” The game works by every senior paying an entry fee, dividing into teams of two, and then going on the hunt to shoot other teams with water guns to get them out. The last team alive wins the prize money.
Kennedy Rotner describes water wars as “pretty competitive. Everyone wants to win the money at the end. This game might even be more competitive than last year’s.” Rotner has also already secured her first kill of the game and describes the moment: “I was at volleyball practice and I got out Gracie Newman. We all had our floaties in our bags, but I took hers and waited outside after practice and got her out. I felt a little bad, but I needed a kill.”
Noah Teters also discusses his team’s kill after school one evening: “Me, Claudia, Rhegyn, and Nolan were just chilling one night, and we decided we wanted to get Darrell out. But Natsuki lives on the same street as Darrell, and when we went we saw his family outside watering plants. We sit there, and we see him come out, so Nolan and I creep out of the car and run up on him and we get him!”
The seniors are very strategic this year when it comes to water wars, so everyone must be on guard at all times. Rotner warns other teams to “watch out. I’m always strapped and I’m always prepared.”
In addition to senior water wars, seniors also have the opportunity to leave their mark on TPA during the year with a parking spot. The seniors have helped contribute to the creative and unique designs students see every morning on the way to school. Anna Moriarty has a spot and describes the process as “really exciting. It’s a little piece of you on campus. Some of us have been here for seven years or four years, so it’s really cool to have something of ours that we created.” Anna also says that she and some friends paint together: “We would just meet up at night when the weather cooled down, and paint together. It was a ton of fun.”
While graduation may still be far off, the senior class is quickly finding ways to pass the time. The class can’t even believe they are a quarter of the way through the year. Good luck to our seniors with their essays, and college applications! Go Knights!