As the 2024-2025 school year comes to an end, Patriot High School seniors are getting ready to walk across the stage. Hundreds of unique and individual students celebrate their final moments as high schoolers, hoping to relive past memories. Why not implement two more traditions, both that will allow seniors to leave their mark while creatively expressing themselves? 

As Oscar Wilde said, “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” Patriot High School is filled with students unique in their own ways, and that is precisely what strengthens the community. When each person provides a piece of their aesthetic, belief, and creativity into shared art, it can create a more diverse, yet bonded community that positively reflects everyone’s creative expression. 

According to the Arlington Museum of Art, looking at art can improve focus and productivity, as well as reduce stress. Additionally, Patriot High School art teacher Melanie Woolwine says, “I think [creative high school traditions are] positive because it can only promote school spirit. The more things that we allow students to do that are fun and exciting, the more they’re going to want to [come to school]. If there’s all these, ‘oh no you can’t do this’, ‘no you can’t do that’, then they don’t really want to be here because their voices aren’t heard, and they don’t see their creative sides.” 

Art shapes the world around us, whether we realize it or not. Everyone is capable of making something extraordinary with art, so why not implement it in Patriot High School to showcase the talent of our own seniors? 

Painting Parking Spaces: 

Schools all over Prince William County, such as Colgan, Osbourn Park, and Unity Reed, all allow their seniors to paint their parking spaces. Besides making the parking lot look pretty, it puts a visual emphasis on the uniqueness, creativity, and talent of every individual student. 

Painting parking spaces not only allows seniors to represent themselves, but it can overall create a community and make the environment more welcoming. It would be like walking through a garden of the senior class; everyone’s personality reflected by the artwork they make.  

This activity can additionally make for great memories. As students devote a few days out of their summer vacation to painting with their peers, the senior class bond can strengthen, starting their last year of high school off with a wholesome start. 

Painting parking spaces can also prove to be useful. Reserved parking spaces can be visually identified, resolving any parking confusion. However, as of right now, Patriot only offers student parking passes for $100 and does not have assigned parking spaces. 

This leads to the cons of implementing the senior tradition of painting parking spaces, which is that Patriot administration will have to start assigning parking spaces to students. This can prove to be difficult as there are a limited number of parking spaces. However, this should not be too big of a problem because assigned parking spaces will only be administered to seniors. 

Furthermore, the cost of supplies can be high. Julius L. Chambers High School in North Carolina requires students to pay an additional $45 fee on top of their parking pass payment to be able to paint their parking space. Besides this, paint is not supplied by the school – students are required to purchase their own paint and supplies from approved stores. 

Concerns arise – what if someone paints something inappropriate on their parking space? What Thomas S. Wootton High School in Maryland does is require all designs to be approved by the administration beforehand. They compare it to how posters around the school need permission to be hung up; the same goes for parking spots being painted. 

However, Katherine Moore, a teacher on special assignment at Patriot High School, presents a Patriot-specific problem with painting parking spaces as well. She says, “Patriot high school lies on a watershed, so when rainwater drains off, chemicals can come off from the paint and it can go into our water supply… therefore, we weren’t able to paint parking spaces because of that regulation.” 

Overall, the senior tradition of painting parking spaces is a fun and creative experience that can visually demonstrate the uniqueness and creativity of the senior class every year. By implementing this tradition, Patriot High School can be seen as livelier, giving the exterior of the school personality. While the problem of paint chemicals draining into Patriot’s water supply is notable, regulations should be set on what kind of paint students can use. This can ensure safety of the water supply while still allowing driving seniors to showcase their creativity on their parking spaces. 

Decorating Graduation Caps: 

Though graduation is a formal event, the personalization of graduation caps should be implemented in Patriot High School’s graduation ceremony. 

The customization of this aspect is the graduating students’ chance of displaying their uniqueness and creativity at a memorable event. The occasion is for them, so why prohibit the chance for them to stand out? It is no doubt many students would find joy in customizing their graduation caps with things like quotes, their plans after high school, achievements, photos, and more. Additionally, decorating caps is a fun memory-making activity for seniors to do with their peers before graduating. 

Woolwine adds, “I think [students having decorated graduation caps would make graduation] less rigid. More people would want to walk because they would have a unique experience with having their caps decorated and [have] something that they added to the ceremony… also, parents could find their kids faster and easier.” 

However, the restriction of decorating graduation caps is not light. Many argue that it can take away from the uniformity of the ceremony, and that it could even create competition between students.  

An article published on The Lance, Linganore High School’s news site, argued that students wear cords and stoles based on academic achievement, which already disrupts uniformity and creates competition. If these accessories do not project informality on the ceremony, decorated graduation caps should not either. 

However, Moore disagrees with this. She says, “A high school graduation is a formal event, so you want it to look formal. It might look cool in the moment, but it can take that formal event and lessen the value of it to the community.” 

In all, though high school graduation is a formal event, the opportunity for students to customize their graduation caps should be available in some way, with some regulations. It can be a creative and fun way to display the achievements and different personalities of every graduating individual as they continue on with their own journeys.