Lindsay Rose
It’s easy to feel when the holiday season is approaching. It starts off with a little cold weather- nothing too devastating but nevertheless a little chillier. The days grow shorter, studying hours with your tutor grow longer, and Facebook tends to clutter with the old school Family Channel Christmas music. But this year, student council felt that something was missing. Sure, our hearts warm to the sound of holiday music being played in the mall, and we hit the gym more frequently to work off those advent calendar chocolates. However, after much consideration, it was time to take the holiday spirit to a whole new level. Yes, I’m talking about NT’s very own Christmas tree.
One of the things that comes to mind when I reminisce about the glory of our beautifully decorated tree is the exclusivity that came along with it. I don’t recall there being any other ornaments or décor celebrating any other holidays. How could any of us exclude other dominant holidays as important as Christmas?! Kwanzaa too is celebrated throughout the last week of December to connect black history movements between North America and more specifically Swahili, and is represented by fruits of the harvest. Everybody knows that!! But did I see any harvested fruits? Hakuna. (That’s Swahili for nope). Not pleased NT, not pleased.
And then we enter our second layer of exclusivity- who was chosen to decorate the tree. There was much hype about getting this said tree, but students were quickly heartbroken to find that only those selected from the group of class representatives would be invited to help decorate. “This is B.S.!!” Grade 11 Zoe Starkman declared, when asked how it felt to be excluded from the decoration committee. “Holidays are meant to unite! I’ve never decorated a tree in my life but school should be a place of firsts!!” Editing out all explicit language, she basically decided it was discrimination. My sympathy extends to all those who missed out, but sometimes life is unfair.
Despite these minor flaws surrounding our tree, it was much loved and cared for by staff and students. But, unfortunately, after enjoying our tree during the holiday season, and through the dark times of exams, we must say goodbye. “We should just protest and tie ourselves to the tree! Petition!” Says grade 11 student Nikki Nathanielsz. I know- it’s tough to let go of the beauty that is our tree and the memories of the holidays along with it. But next year we will drive student council to be the masters of NT’s holiday destiny, and deliver an even bigger, even brighter, even greener tree than this year’s. Hope you had a happy holidays NT, (and although I’m still quite bitter about the absence of Kwanzaa spirit from you all) I hope you loved our tree just as much as I did.