Friendship Day

By: Tsewang Sadutshang and Isabella Vogel (Grade 9)

It all started last Wednesday afternoon at around 4 pm: a lot of events were scheduled for that fateful day but the one on every 9th graders mind was Friendship, or Initiation Day. 12th and 9th graders were paired up for 'initiation', and shy hellos were exchanged, but nothing really happened till Friday morning (25th September 2009). For the first time (in a long time!), it seemed as if all of the 9th graders were awake before 6:30 a.m. The boys from Rokeby walked down to Ridgewood or Midlands, and the girls from Midlands made their way down to Ridgewood or over to the Senior Girls' Dorm.

The seniors had planned their freshmen's outfit, and the freshmen were waiting for the final command. It was amazing to see how creative people managed to be despite the short notice. Some seniors decided to dress their freshmen up in groups (for example: as Pirates or as The Beatles). Some seniors did a marvelous solo when it came to adoring their freshmen (for example: Superman, Cleopatra, and Tinker Bell!). Other seniors chose to let their freshmen just be themselves.

This day was one of fun, and delight, even to those not partaking in it, for there definitely was something worth looking at.

During the second half of the day, the dare competition began. It all started during lunch. Each freshman had a list of names of the seniors and had to do a dare that was suggested by them, to get it signed. The student to get the list signed first was going to get a prize. The first dare was said to be done by Uddhav Mehra, who had to stand on a table and loudly sing a 'Happy Birthday' song to himself in front of everybody in the cafeteria! It continued on for some time, with more embarrassing and humorous dares. The seniors seemed to definitely enjoy the entertainment. After half an hour or so, classes began, so the game had to be paused until the end of school.

Going for tea was a big hassle. Majority of the senior and freshman students were in the Quad, either giving or receiving dares. Some of the dares included: role around the quad; hug somebody; get everybody's attention and dance/sing etc. By 5:15pm we had our winners. Srishti Golechha and Hee Seo Shin had become the first ones to receive signatures from all of the seniors. Their prize, which was a plastic bag full of Chaya Café s chocolate chip cookies, was presented to them this morning, at the Monday morning assembly.

The seniors and freshmen had dinner at the Quad together. This was a great way to end a great day of friendship and inter-class harmony.