By: Beverly Jenkins <[email protected]>

It’s cold and dark; you’re tired and bored. What’s a high school student to do when there seems to be no end in sight, and all you want to do is crawl back under the blankets?

Seniors Caitlin Abbey, Kristyn Burke, Emily Campbell, Katie Duffy, Molly Gigax, Hilary Hoover, Nicole Krauter and Stacey Leeds have made it almost a mission to keep themselves entertained, be it spontaneously or traditionally, by finding some sort of way to keep the morale up throughout the winter months.

“It does keep the winter from becoming too monotonous (from) being cooped up inside. We really make it a point to be together,” Krauter said.

According to Jill Birk, interpersonal relations and interior design teacher, everyone needs a foundation of friends to count on. “When you have a solid foundation like (these girls) do, you really have fun with life and learning experiences,” Birk said.

“We do a lot of things,” Gigax said. “We’ve gone to the zoo. We’ve gone to festivals. Sometimes we stay in and have fun with makeup. We’ve even bought an Easy Bake oven and just made treats all night [at home],” Gigax said. “Some of us are camp counselors during the summer, so we get a lot of goofy ideas from camp. …We really like spirit days, too.”

“We go all out when we dress for spirit days,” Krauter said. “(We wear) funky socks, beads, face paint, Goodwill outfits, wigs (and) tutus.”

“We love looking at each other’s crazy outfits,” Hoover said.

The girls said they have many more impulsive moments, but traditions are also sacred, from Friday morning breakfast to Thursday night bowling, from Secret Santas to “chalking” with sidewalk chalk in the spring.

The group does not have plans for Valentines Day yet though. “We don’t have anything specific planned yet,” Hoover said, “but I imagine that we’ll all get together and wear some goofy Valentines Day outfit.”

While Birk said the group’s traditions and rituals are more of a ‘girl thing,’ stability in socialization is beneficial. “Sometimes it’s not about the Easy Bake oven, it’s more about the conversation that is had while you’re with it,” Birk said.

“We might cook a dinner together or go out to a restaurant,” Krauter added.

For many students, however, coming up with ideas for a fun event might prove difficult. Hoover explains that sometimes, the girls aren’t always so creative with their ideas. She said, “Instead of just deciding we’re going to get together or something, we will declare (the night) ‘game night’ or ‘movie night.’ That isn’t too out of the norm, but it makes it so we really just have something to do. We just really try to have a good time and have fun with our friends.”

While the girls are adamant that they don’t plan too far ahead, they have been known to make plans, such as a list of places they want to visit on a road trip. “We’ve thought about King’s Island, Holiday World and the list also includes places that boast about something (like) the world’s largest ball of paint,” Krauter said.

However, this routine of traditional gatherings and spontaneous outings didn’t just happen. “We would come up with the ideas pretty much randomly; someone will mention something, and we’ll laugh and joke about how fun or funny it would be to do that, and then most of the time we try to follow through,” Krauter said.

“A lot of kids are just sitting at home watching TV and being bored,” Gigax said, “(but) we just like to have fun.”