Dear Reader,
On tours of Deerfield’s campus last week, many visitors were struck by the casual dress and strange costumes adorned by Deerfield’s students. After all, where were the blazers they had heard so much about? Had they mistakenly overdressed? The cause of this departure from the norm, as any member of the Deerfield community knows, was, of course, the week leading up to Choate Day. For Deerfield, a school with many lauded traditions, from singing the Evensong every Sunday sitdown dinner to its dedicated patch of grass outside of the MSB for just seniors, the week leading up to Choate Day to many is the epitome of Deerfield school spirit and tradition.
With Choate Day comes other festivities ranging from battle-crying unsuspecting students to the cheerleader-led annual freshmen hike to the Rock. And to be honest, students either love these rituals or hate them. More specifically, the 5 am hike to the Rock can be quite polarizing. In the past, this hike was kept a secret from freshmen, with the cheerleaders leading a surprise ambush on the Village a few days before Choate Day. However, during my freshman year, the 2020-2021 academic year, when many traditions were put on hold, the fall hike fell through the cracks. Instead, the cheerleaders took us for the hike during the Spring Term. Yet, we were given something students before us had yet to experience: an advance notice, stressing that the experience was meant to be fun but certainly not required.
Ever since, freshmen have been told beforehand, and the secret hike is no longer a secret. When Captain Deerfield, Caleb Kirkpatrick ’24, made an announcement at sitdown lunch regarding the hike, he, too, stressed the optional nature of the hike. While making it optional certainly removes peer pressure for students to attend, I wonder what other traditions remain impacted from our unconventional freshmen year. And if so, have we promoted greater inclusivity or simply challenged Deerfield’s previous commitment to “buying in?”
Whether the answer lies in one of the two extremes or somewhere in the middle, Deerfield students certainly still bleed green, win or lose.
All the best,
Kaitlyn Xia