What I’m passionate about at Kempsville is school spirit – 100 percent. I like to dress all crazy. Me and partner in crime, Abby O’Neil, try to step up every spirit day. When I got here four years ago I noticed there wasn’t a huge participation in spirit days. I thought there was a little more school spirit when I was here…maybe not much. I graduated in 2009. Honestly, when I was here, I only did some of the days. Whereas, now I try to go all out. Me and O’Neil try to push each other all the time because it’s fun and it brightens the school up.
I’ve dyed my beard before for Chief Pride Day. I dyed it red and blue. We dressed up for Old Person Day. I’m always partial to America Day. I’m a very patriotic person. On Twin Day a bunch of students dressed up like me. On Tacky Sweater Day I dyed my beard green and hung ornaments in it. Kids start laughing when they see me. Good! It’s funny. It’s school spirit!
When I was in high school I thought I was cool, in a bad way – as in, I didn’t take advantage of all the opportunities Kempsville had for me. I didn’t go to leadership workshop. I didn’t do many spirit days and stuff because I thought I would be a weirdo. I didn’t want to stick out. Now I do this so that kids know it’s okay to take these opportunities. I’m all about after-school activities, about spirit, about wanting to be here.
Kempsville is such a cool school. It really is. It’s a historical school. We have a community that supports us and I mean, some kids knock the building for being 50 years old but our custodial staff is awesome. They are rock stars. It’s an old school, but we have roots. I can’t emphasize how cool it is to see from both sides, as a student and a teacher. I mean, I teach across from my English teacher from 11th grade. It’s just a really cool place to be.
#WeAreVBSchools
