Photos above credit to The Hewitt School Facebook page.
The foggy, dark, windy, and not-so-perfect way to start off Field Day 2013 begins to hinder the spirits of the hundreds of students who came prepared for sun, filing out of the buses not so eagerly. Once everyone makes their way onto Bear Mountain, Coach Rubenstein takes attendance. As soon as she yells, “4th grade white,” screams and screeches somehow fill the whole field, practically making other students’ ears bleed. With the increase in grade level comes a decrease in energy, and a few minutes later when Coach Rubenstein calls, “12th grade blue,” all that can be heard are the distant chirps of Bear Mountain birds. Following attendance, we all gather into various groups in our respective teams with 4th and 5th graders sprinting to their activities and older students trailing behind them in a zombie-like fashion.
After a few rounds of pillow polo, medic ball, and balloon toss, and tug of war, it’s the time everyone was waiting for – lunch time! Students (literally) dash to the lunch line, eagerly awaiting a burger and/or a hot dog. After seconds (and thirds), many girls catch sight of vending machines, filled with chips, soda, and – yes – ice cream! A fierce and impatient stampede characteristic of Hewitt girls forms at the machines, (with some friendly, hunger-rooted pushing and shoving included), as the day begins to heat up.
With roaring stomachs calmed, the clouds start to disperse and the sun starts to peek through. We break into the final round of fun as the day comes to a close with student-led activities. While some venture into the art of yoga with Sarah Rodeo ’13 or show off their martial art skills with Sky Malik ’15, others participate in a wild competition of rainbow tag and a water balloon fight.
As the day ends, students covered in paint load the buses with generallypositive attitudes about the day in its entirety. As I now reflect in writing this article, I remember the intense competition that overwhelmed the spirit of field day as a lower schooler. I left my blood, sweat, and tears out on the field to make sure my team came home with enough victories to secure the year’s winner. But now in upper school, our field day goals have changed completely. It’s really more about a time to have fun, a break from end-of-the-year projects, and all without too much competitive edge and desires for points.
For some, though, this decreased spirit of blue versus white abandons the tradition. If field day loses this, will it seep into the pile of other vanished blue-white events, like lip sync? In spite of this, I can honestly say that I, and many of my classmates, now enjoy field day to an even greater extent because of its transformation from a war of two colors to a collective celebration of the year and of years to come. This is an extreme shift of mindset in a positive direction, and it’s a huge difference compared to years ago when field day marked the pressure of winning or losing.
