All Things Homecoming

Homecoming is a dance that happens yearly during the fall for most schools. During homecoming, you should expect fun music, groups of friends, and lovely decorations to fill the room. The Homecoming Dance is from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Some schools have their dance held at their school building, but the Waukee High School homecoming is being held at the Hy-Vee Hall Events Center. This arena is located in downtown Des Moines, This allows students to have more opportunities to all the cool sites downtown. Lots of students look forward to this event and all it entails. Things like getting dressed up, going out with friends downtown, taking pictures, and overall having a wonderful time. 

The homecoming dance is a thrilling exciting time, but the actual dance isn’t the only thing students have to look forward to. During the homecoming week leading up, Waukee students get to have fun dress-up days for each day of the week. For this year 2023-24, the dress-up days are Barbenheimer for Monday, and Tuesday is Country Vs. Country Club, Wednesday is Groutfit Day, Thursday is Family Day, and lastly, Friday is Spirit Day. Students Participate in these dress-up days as a fun way to show their Waukee spirit. Some students even look forward to these fun dress-ups more than the dance itself. A junior at WHS, Ella Makohoniuk stated “The dance can be fun, but in my opinion, it’s not the best part of homecoming week. I’m honestly more excited to see all the students participate in the themed dress-up days than anything else.” 

Many students are excited to dress up and go on their homecoming plans. Homecoming plans usually consist of getting together with a group of friends, going out to dinner, and taking memorable pictures all before coming to the exciting event. There’s a lot to look forward to on this night. The dance has a DJ who plays lots of exciting, trendy music. The room is decorated with lots of unique decor, allowing students to have a great time dancing/socializing at the event. Students love to get dressed up and look good for homecoming. Junior Taffy Sindlinger reflects on this saying, “I’m excited to dress up and look pretty. My favorite part of homecoming is my dress and my shoes”Traditionally, the homecoming dance has a new theme yearly. This year’s theme was “All Roads Lead Home”. This unique theme can have various meanings. One way to look at it is that no matter which path we choose to take, it will always eventually lead us all to the same place. There is no “wrong” path, just different ones. Waukee is always going to be our home, no matter how far our futures take us. WHS prides itself on the diverse array of students who attend school here. Everyone comes from different places and different backgrounds—yet despite the differences, every student gets a fair chance and can get to the same destination. Some students like this theme, “It’s definitely different, but it’s a cool theme,” says junior Noelle Determan. While others, not so much. Junior Daniella Nanduhura claims, “It doesn’t really matter to me because I’m not going to dress up based on the theme, but there really isn’t a way to do so here. I feel as if it’s uncreative.”