As seniors, graduation is a bittersweet time and also one of the many milestones in the beginning the rest of our lives. Every moment of it should be memorable and enjoyable. Over the years things have been refined when coming to senior year such as not being able to leave the school property for lunch, at one point senior pranks were not allowed, and no longer being able to paint on the the graduation caps. While these restrictions have cause, I think it’s time to loosen up a little and a step towards that is allowing seniors to paint their graduation caps.

By allowing seniors to paint their caps it is letting them express their excitement of finally being free of high school. It’s an expression of relief. While leaving the building for lunch is very justified in the fact that students may not come back, painting graduation caps is on the other side of the spectrum. Some of the worries about painting them is that there will be foul language or anything inappropriate on the cap. My argument is that we are in a public school, and students are exposed to foul, inappropriate, and provocative things. It is unfortunate, but that is what we sign up for the moment we step into public school and there is no controlling it to the point where there is no unbecoming language. If we get to keep these caps then why shouldn’t we be able to paint on them and express ourselves? A rebuttal could be that we can paint them afterwards, but the point to painting them is so we get to show them off at graduation.

When looking at this from an administrative point of view I can understand the concerns. Painting parking spots was the first step towards a more free senior year. If we set up the senior caps like the parking spots, then maybe there would be a chance of controlling the situation. Seniors could send in requests of what they would like to paint on their caps and get it accepted. Once that has been done the seniors could paint their caps and then have it checked again by administration. This would be a surefire way to make sure nothing inappropriate is painted on the caps. I have also looked up an extra alternative. There are such things called graduation cap toppers. Most of them have adhesive patches where the topper sticks to and there is an option to customize your own. Once again it could be approved by the administration before purchasing.

While this is not a pressing matter to our senior year, it’s still a step in making all of us happier on our special day. Not only this but imagine all the parents getting to see our caps as we sit. Every cap would be different and cool in their own way. Not every senior has to participate, but for those that do, it would be exciting to see if they choose comedy, a nostalgic quote, or just something as simple as a pattern. Let’s try to add an extra perk to seniors and make up and coming seniors excited about their year.