School spirit is my life, and it should be yours. School spirit doesn’t just mean going to Friday Night Lights or attending our DGS boys’ basketball games. It means participating in all aspects of DGS, getting involved in different activities and supporting each club or group.

Knowing what is going on or being proud of our high school is something that should be pushed forward. At all these different colleges, their students seem to be more in tune with their school spirit, but where is that in high school?

Throughout the past four years, dressing up for “Mustang Way” Fridays has diminished. We get at least one free DGS shirt a year for us to wear to represent DGS. We also get a free DGS shirt for everything we are involved with, clubs, sports or even volunteering. Since my freshman year, I have gathered around 35 DGS shirts.

To go on with dressing up, when we have our spirit weeks it has become a culture of dressing up for spirit days to be “uncool.” Feeling embarrassed to show school spirit is something we must change, and it all starts with everyone that is reading this paper.

As an example, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of the many schools that show a lot of school involvement and spirit. From clubs to Greek life, and of course, attending sporting events.

In this day and age, women’s sports attendance rates are not as high as men’s sports attendance rates. However, Nebraska is determined to change that. They hold the record for the highest attendance for women’s sports-92,003 people packed their football stadium to support their volleyball team.

Each one of those 92,003 people made a significant impact on Nebraska’s student involvement. Every school in the entire world should have that much school involvement in everything and honestly, it’s not much of a difficult task to do.

I am a student-athlete that has a job and two AP classes. I have managed to be involved in 13 different activities that go on at DGS while still giving 100% to cross country, Starbucks, AP French and AP statistics. My 13 different activities have brought me closer to my school and my community.

I feel like I can say I proudly represent DGS, and I want that for every student at our school. If every student became highly involved in their school, we would create more bonds with their teachers, peers and their community. High school is such a pivotal time in a person’s life, and the relationships we form while there are some of the most important.

But, most importantly, we would be able to embrace as much school spirit as possible, and represent DGS in the best way. By having as much school spirit as possible, the time you spend in high school will be some of your most memorable moments.