Purple Feather Day is celebrated every year around the end of April, this year being the 49th annual Purple Feather Day. This celebrates the students who have achieved a cumulative grade point average of a 3.5 or higher throughout the years they have been at Central.
As a student who has gone to Purple Feather Day each year, I am starting to understand the blessing in disguise that Purple Feather Day is – each year has been different yet similar.
My freshman year, or the 47th annual purple feather day, I was very surprised that such a day existed. I was also very glad because I felt as though my hard work was acknowledged and glad that it wasn’t overlooked. But once we went outside to take a photo and play outside it started to rain so we were forced to go into the gym and dance.
Me being a freshman, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a fun day, and I felt so proud of myself for even being invited. It was my first Purple Feather Day, and since it rained my expectations of how the next year would go were down.
Sophomore year I once again forgot that the day was a thing, and when I got invited, I was so happy, and once we got outside and saw the inflatables, I was even happier. Once again, there were games played by each grade and students were randomly selected from each grade to represent their peers. Each year the support from each grade given to their peers gets even louder.
Purple Feather Day helps bring people together who may have never seen each other, or only in the halls, yet now they are supporting each other. That year we got a water bottle full of goodies, and once again I was proud that I was invited.
This year though, my junior year, I was starting to fall behind in my classes and I was not proud of my grades. April rolled around and I remembered Purple Feather Day; I wasn’t sure if I should get my hopes up and expect to get invited.
Purple feather celebrates the ones who are trying hard in school. I was trying hard, yet I didn’t know if I was trying hard enough to meet their expectations.
When the day came around and I was invited, I experienced a sense of relief. Even though this year may not have been the best, my past hard work helped support me into meeting the criteria. I was even more grateful for being invited, making the most out of the time and even helping my little brother explore his first Purple Feather Day.
Purple feather is there to help encourage students to try their best to be able to have a fun free period near the end of the year. Through the years each one has been similar to the past years, yet each year the sense of accomplishment never goes away.
This year made me realize that even though one year could be worse than the others, if you try your best throughout all the years as a high-schooler, you will be celebrated.
