Last spring, in her class president candidacy speech, Christina Lee promised her class a “senior lock-in.” Despite the unlikelihood that a school sleepover of 92 eighteen year-olds could be achieved, Lee prevailed. With the help of the upper school faculty and a meticulously planned and extraordinary night,  all involved transformed a Friday night into a memorable gift to her fellow seniors.

The fun kicked off on Friday, January 8th, with an Academy-style scavenger hunt, in which simply retrieving items could not guarantee success. This competition, instead, required creativity, imagination, and a diversity of talents. The red, blue, and yellow teams battled in an interpretive dance, 90’s pop renditions, and iambic pentameter–all striving to impress the judges–Mrs. Soderberg, Mr. Farrenkopf, and Mrs. Gursahaney. Stand-out performances like the acoustic duo of Conner Poulin and Mr. Bolognese singing a riveting “Bye Bye Bye” and Cameron Fachman’s spot-on impression of Mr. Exilne snatched the first place finish for the red team.

Next, the class consumed a midnight feast to fuel the all-nighter to come. For the next seven hours, seniors bounced from the game room, the ping-pong table, a movie room, a video game room, and a guitar room, leaving very few to the sleeping rooms. As our eyelids hung heavily, Chris Cakes arrived with his pancake grill to revive our spirits and appetites.

With only one semester left, the lock-in gave the tightly-knit class of 2016 a chance to laugh, compete, and grow incredibly slap-happy together, and for that we owe a great thanks to student council, faculty, and administrators who helped bring this idea into reality.

On Saturday January 9th, we all left campus with low energy and high spirits and—I think — a stronger appreciation for our Academy experience.