Homecoming season is a much anticipated time for many students. It is a way to reconnect with people after the summer and for students to celebrate their school spirit. People cherish cheering among the crowd in the bleachers while supporting their school football team. It is also an excuse to dance and act goofy with your friends. But this year, many students had to skip out on the past HoCo festivities for the same reason: they could not make it.

While Homecoming is hyped up as a must-attend event, numerous activities coincided with its timing this year. These included important commitments such as the SAT or school sports games like soccer or field hockey. As a result of these events, students had to miss out on the treasured HoCo experience. Abby Marlowe, a freshman on the RM Ice Hockey team, was among the many who had a game on the same day as the homecoming football game. “It would have been fun to go with my friends, so it was kind of sad [not to go],” Marlowe said. 

Homecoming is projected as a pinnacle component of the high school experience, so when students have to choose between events it can be stressful. Especially with factors such as FOMO and peer pressure constantly influencing youth, it is hard to deal with these emotions. With commitments like the SAT, something students spend months putting in the effort and studying for, on top of school and extracurricular work piled up, often they don’t have much time for some school traditions. Other students begin to not care about these occasions, especially if they know they cannot attend even if they want to. 

While it is true some do not have a preference when it comes to homecoming attendance students should be able to add their input in decisions. A way to partially fix this issue is to gain more student feedback based on when to host Homecoming. Just as there are votes on the HoCo theme, there could be a system implemented to vote for preferred weeks or timings and that could be a baseline for choosing a date.

Sometimes scheduling conflicts occur, and it isn’t a fault or mistake from anybody. However, if games are all scheduled around the same time, there is a fair chance that some could never experience a Homecoming football game. Therefore, feedback and understanding through student perspectives are critical, leading to more communication regarding timing and better schedules.