It is officially the week of all weeks at Rosary Academy. Red and Gold kickoff is this Friday—let me repeat—THIS FRIDAY!!!

Now, for all my freshmen reading this, you are probably so confused, and if you aren’t confused, you definitely don’t understand the magnitude of this momentous day in our school community. So, here is the 411 on EVERYTHING you should know about what this week is like from a captain’s perspective. Buckle up because I am about to transport you to a another dimension…

Wednesday. This day is worse than Christmas Eve. You just want it all to begin, and you are nervous about revealing everything. Jitters rock you at the core, everything seems so close yet so far away, and you just want the day to be OVER.

Thursday. DON’T FREAK OUT, TODAY IS THE DAY. It all goes down tonight. The whole day consists of us not focusing, being way too excited, and having a complete and total inability to accomplish anything remotely productive. After school, every captain goes home to nap before the night of all nights begins.

Suddenly, it’s 6 p.m., and we are gathering into the Karcher Center along with all the other captains for the first time since December. We get to run through our kickoff skits for the first time, and it’s an amazing night of pure laughter and excitement. Mrs. Huerta ’94 and Ms. LaBonte ’09 critique our skits and congratulate us one last time on our accomplishments as leaders.

Then, the teams split, and we head over to a local captain’s house. From this point on, you really won’t get any sleep, but that’s the way we like it. This night is pure madness. Girls are writing all of their deepest, darkest, and oddest thoughts on tiny stick notes. As for the rest…well it’s just pure fun. But, if you really want to know… it’s basically us losing our sanity and ingesting straight caffeine to stay awake.

Finally, it’s Kickoff morning. Your head is spinning from all the caffeine you’ve ingested over the last night, and you look so brutally disgusting. But, when you gather alongside your teammates at that gate… it’s go time. The countdown begins and everyone takes off before Mrs. Huerta can even say “Two…”

Nothing beats the feeling of running full speed and screaming at the break of dawn alongside your best friends. You have to get the best spot for your canvas, you must get your posters up first. The bathrooms get trashed…in pure art. The school is thrown up on…in anything and everything Red and Gold. Everything is just so chaotic… life is magic.

Seniors, take it all in. Freshmen, embrace it all. Juniors and sophomores, go live it up and show us all that you are ready to be the future of this beloved tradition.