Welcome to family weekend and Dana Hall homecoming, where we defeat our rival Newton Country Day School!!!

Starting off the day by giving a speech to the whole school and their parents, Whitley and I, as the elected Middle School Co-Presidents talked about the inclusivity, kindness, and empowerment at our school. We talked about our own experiences with my story being about joining Varsity Volleyball, while hers the people encouraging her to run for Middle School Co-President. We then gave a quick recap of what we have done so far for the Middle School, such as a presentation about the usage of gum and a fun fall festival, including our goals for the upcoming school year. Our speech was terrific, and we got a huge applause. My friend’s and their parents all came up to me in some point of the day and complimented me on my “poised and confident speech” saying that they thought I was very mature and were surprised that I wasn’t nervous at all speaking in front of such a big crowd. My volleyball teammates also congratulated me in the team group chat and some seniors even said they had tears in their eyes when I was mentioning them in my personal story.

The parents then visited our classrooms, where we had all sorts of fun games and discussions. My favorite one was definitely in English when we had to use the little time that we got to find a song that represented my middle school years. Of course I had to be fun and chose the song Raining Tacos, which made everyone burst out laughing. However, I have a good reason why I chose this song. Middle School was definitely a chaotic year in finding friendships that last a lifetime, playing trendy Roblox games (where Raining Taco’s is one of the songs in Steal a Brainrot), and finding our my identity as well as learning to express our gratitude to those who have cared for us, raising us to who we are now. The song Raining Tacos is so wild and fun, as I don’t believe there will ever be a day where tacos rain from the sky. It brings back memories and childhood where everything seemed so easy and there were no such thing as sadness. The lyrics that especially struck me were “just open your mouth, and close your eyes, it’s raining tacos!”. This simple sentence made me think of the gratitude I feel for my parents. As a child, we don’t have to work to earn our food, our house, and our clothes, it is as easy as “opening our mouth, closing our eyes”, and being able to feast on the food my parents provided. It makes me wonder about the life I will have when I am older, when there are no longer free tacos raining from the sky, where I have to close my mouth and open my eyes to find food. Even though I don’t believe that this child song had an intention of being so philosophical, I interpreted it in such a way that awed many of my friends and the adults in the room.

Ok, forget about the solemn part, let’s move on to something fun. As i said before, I am honored to join the Varsity Volleyball team as the only eighth grader, and we are playing our biggest rival, Newton Country Day School. Our team is super impressive this year, holding right now a 15 win and 1 loss record. We are first in the Eastern Independent School League and third in the NEPSAC (New England Prepatory School Athletic Council), and our rank may go even higher as the season continues! Even though there are a lot of other varsity sports going all, all my friends (there were 30 of them!) came to watch my game, and together, they made me a heartwarming poster with the huge bubble letters: GO DANA. HERE COMES GRACE #4 SHE’S IN EIGHTH GRADE!!! They waved it high on the bleachers, and were all cheering for me. Later, after the game ended, they told me proudly that they were going to make me more posters, but the school ran out of cardboard paper and so they had to all combine one, and that some of them wrote the letters as others colored it. During the game, when I went up to serve the ball, the crowd erupted in screams and cheers. They were all screaming my name and waving my poster. I was scared for a small second that I was going to miss my serve, but I grew confident and served the ball over the net, getting a strong ace (Definition: Ace means when you serve the ball over the net and the other team shanks it)!!! The crowd went wild, and at that moment, I felt sooo supported by my friends and community.

As the game grew to an end, and unsurprisingly, as the strong team we are, we won against Newton Country Day, all my friends ran to me and gave me hugs. We all then went to the Friday Night Lights Game, where the varsity soccer was still playing. There were more people waiting for me by the soccer game. Someone handed me a waffle and another handed me a hotdog, saying that I must be hungry. Smiling widely from ear to ear, I took photos with all my friends and the poster they made me.

Yesterday night was an unforgettable night! I had so much fun thanks to all the support my family and friends gave me. Even though my parents did not make me a poster, they have been to everyone one of my games, even if it is as far as Rhode Island, and always supported me despite sometimes being on the court for not so long, so I really wanted to point that out to thank them.

I also learned another funny lesson: DON’T PUT GLITTER IN YOUR HAIR EVEN IF YOU WANT TO LOOK FESTIVE! AND DEFINITELY NOT HALF A BOTTLE OF GLITTER! IT WON’T COME OUT THAT EASILY (FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE)!!!