Senior year is both the most highly anticipated year, and the most dreaded one. Along with the infamous college application process comes the prospect of leaving home and saying goodbye to family and lifelong friends. However, through a variety of long-standing traditions, Blind Brook seniors make sure that this is a year they won’t forget.
Many of the senior traditions are full-fledged art projects, including the painting of the senior rock and the decorating of senior cars. Rock painting happens every summer, the day before the start of the new school year. The members of the senior class gather on campus and spray paint their names on the large rock in the center of the courtyard outside the middle school cafeteria.
The senior class typically dresses in a white ensemble to paint the rock. After everyone is finished, seniors proudly emerge with hand prints and spray paint on their shirts.
“The rock painting is definitely one of my favorite senior traditions. I have so many pictures from that day of myself and my friends laughing and having fun.” said senior Alexa Limb.
In addition to the rock painting, many seniors choose that same day to paint their cars with senior-themed designs. While this is not a school-sanctioned event, a large number of seniors go to the parking lot of Ridge Street School to complete this activity. At the end of the day, various sayings and phrases that incorporate their graduating year stand out on the cars of the seniors.
Another popular senior tradition is the scavenger hunt. Although is is also not an event sponsored by the school administration, the senior class officers typically organize the event. The seniors divide themselves into teams, and pick a theme for their group’s outfit. Each team must complete as many tasks as they can within one hour. The seniors all congregate in the parking lot of SUNY Purchase to receive the scavenger hunt list, and must return after the hour is up.
In recent years, the senior scavenger hunt has been criticized by school faculty, village police, parents, and even students for its sometimes dangerous nature.
“Traditions are important. Like anything else, there are good traditions and bad traditions. At Blind Brook, I think we have far more positive traditions than negative ones. The senior privileges are good traditions. Painting the rock before school starts is a good tradition. The senior scavenger hunt, however, is a very negative tradition, and one that I’m against. It advocates reckless and sometimes even illegal behavior, and should either be discontinued or significantly modified,” said senior Bryan Weintraub.
However, not all seniors share this mentality.
“I think that everyone was aware of the problems that had occurred in previous years, so our grade really tried to be as safe as possible during our scavenger hunt. As far as I could tell, everyone was just trying to have fun and enjoy one of the last days of summer,” said Limb.
A less controversial tradition at Blind Brook is the senior Halloween parade. Every October, seniors arrive on Halloween morning dressed up and ready to show off their costumes to the rest of the school.
“So many of the seniors’ costumes were really clever. I can’t wait to dress up with my friends next year,” said junior Olivia Morrisey.