DelaneyShea
When the cafeteria doors open bright and early at 7 a.m., an irresistible waft of sweet goodness hits every girl in the face — an odd scent in a place without a bakery. They walk on, passing by a gaggle of giggling girls brightening the whole room with shared love for food and bonding.
In a school where we often find ourselves separated, whether that be by class, grade or friend group, community still finds a way to weave its way into the sisterhood. Sometimes, that way is through the stomach.
Mr. Kory Delkamiller’s senior homeroom had a pancake breakfast on an early Friday morning, with Delkamiller in a mom apron. As a prize for meeting their Walk-A-Thon (WAT) goal, Delkamiller arrived at the school around 6:30 that morning to set up his sweet fortress.
Delkamiller believes that there isn’t a way to put homeroom into definite words, just that “there’s just a certain closeness, you know.” Especially at the senior level, there is a unique sense of finality or urgency in connecting with classmates that many girls don’t fully understand until they’ve had four years to mull it over. So he takes matters into his own hands and incentivizes them with breakfast.
Fresh, buttery and golden brown pancakes brought these girls together on a morning where they would’ve been scattered about the building, which begs the question: what purpose does homeroom serve other than attendance?
Senior Therese Kaven, in Delkamiller’s homeroom, finds a unique appreciation for homeroom time. “Homeroom helps connect us with people we don’t normally get to see, and that connection definitely helps our morale overall,” Kaven said. Despite the stress of junior and senior year, Kaven attributes a more positive attitude overall to the short 10 minutes of community she experiences in homeroom daily.
Following her positive experience in homeroom time overall, Kaven gives credit to Delkamiller, saying, “He made it really special for us and we all had a lot of fun together during the breakfast.” This optimism is not always shared with the entire student body, though.
After making it through almost four years of Marian’s notorious rigor, it’s not extremely difficult to understand where the frustration comes from.
Annoyance with homeroom is anything but concealed, with some students even calling it a waste of time. On the other hand, homeroom brings a unique time to connect with girls one may never see on a daily basis otherwise.
One of these rare times to connect comes from Walk-A-Thon, when homerooms come together for a similar goal to raise money, but how does this impact day-to-day life?
By simply seeing others every day, chatting with them about random things, or listening to what they have to say about a class brings a sense of unity to an otherwise divided group. Marian’s system of girls having more or less the same homeroom every year makes this impact so much greater.
It doesn’t need to take until senior year for homeroom bonding to start having an impact on sisterly connections.
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