What Does a Totem Mean to Me?

   “What does Aldergrove Totems mean to you?” I asked one of my friends. And all she did was give me a weird look and laugh. That was the reaction I got from the couple of friends I asked. It shows that people aren't proud to be called a “Totem”. My friends replied to me saying, “School spirit sucks!” or “There's nothing to be proud of” or even “wish it meant something but it doesn't”. It shows that it holds no meaning to the majority of kids at ACSS, other than the school sports’ teams (maybe). We don’t really have anything to be proud of, that makes us go “Hey we are the TOTEMS, the mighty mighty TOTEMS!”

   I guess being a Totem holds no meaning to the majority of kids at ACSS because our school spirit sucks. And because our school spirit isn't that great, it has a big downfall. Any fundraisers, school wide activities, and even school dances aren't a huge success because no one wants to participate. Our expectations are average, yet even then we don't meet them because no one is interested enough. People go as far as even going to another school's dance, just for that "high school experience".

   In my opinion raise the school spirit, and you raise what the meaning of being a totem is. But it’s not as easy as it seems. It's hard to get everyone interested in what we're trying to do in Rec Leadership. We should start from the seniors, who are the "role models" for the school. Get the seniors to play an active role in the school and others will notice. Have fun fundraisers like for example, try to score on the senior boys' goalie, and if you do then you get to throw pie or a water balloon at one of the soccer players for a sports based cause (by a donation of $2). It would be fun, entertaining and a lot of people would participate. Since it's Rec Leadership, we should engage the students through fun and unique sports-based fundraisers.

   Taking small steps, like the Intramurals is an awesome way to get everyone participating in school sports activities. In the future, hopefully by the end of the year it would be an amazing goal to accomplish, if the standard of what a Totem is, or what it means to be a Totem was raised. In the near future, it would be nice if when asked what team you belonged to, people would say,"the TOTEMS!" with pride instead of being embarrassed.