For years, Niles West has always had homecoming and prom, however, we now have ‘Snowcoming’.  Labeled as a winter formal, Snowcoming will take place on February 10, and all students are encouraged to participate in the sneaker ball. Just like homecoming, the week of February 5 will be filled with activities such as little tikes, dunk contests and Hungry, Hungry Hippos. All of these activities were made to increase student involvement and boost morale, but I doubt Snowcoming will catch on, at least for this year.

Talking to my senior classmates, not many people seem too excited about the dance. Many say it was announced too abruptly and others would just prefer having homecoming and prom. From my perspective, I see one issue about the winter dance: too many complications. 

Of all of the homecomings that I’ve gone to at this school, the best and most entertaining were the simple ones. In 2021, COVID restrictions kept us outside in a tent, however, the dancing, community and vibes were perfect. There were no other places to go and no other activities to do besides dancing with your friends. It was the same with homecoming 2022. This time, the COVID restrictions were lifted and we were all corralled into the main gym. Was it sweaty? Sure. Was it somewhat uncomfortable and excessively loud? Definitely. But the one thing that made it my favorite homecoming was the fact that everybody filled up the gym even with no space in the gym. It reminded me of when I went to Lollapalooza and I loved it. Although homecoming in 2023 was fine, the vibes were completely different. Not even half of the main gym was filled with people and it felt awkward to have to walk to the middle of the gym to join the dancing. Everybody was too occupied with other attractions such as the pool table, ping pong, the mechanical bull and inflatable basketball. On paper, all of these options are great, however, they just ended up taking away from the main purpose of the event: dancing. 

I do believe that Snowcoming is a good idea and that more community involvement in the school is always great, but I feel that it won’t stick and that it will also have too many activities within the dance to truly have people want to participate. Many schools have winter formals, and just talking to my parents about their experiences in high schools, their winter formals were very much different than what Snowcoming is supposed to be like. There was slow dancing and pop songs. Everybody was dressed formally and there was nothing to do but dance with your friends. The issue that I see with Snowcoming is that there is way too much going on. It’s a ‘Sneaker Ball Winter Formal’ but you are supposed to dress informally and wear sneakers. I still haven’t figured out if it is supposed to be a homecoming in winter, or just a winter formal. 

From everything that I’ve experienced concerning dances at Niles West, the more simple the dance, the more people enjoy it. “Snowcoming” simply has way too much going on. From snowglobes, sneaker cams, and “more” it seems like D219 is overcomplicating another dance. If you ask me, sticking with the winter formal theme, and making dancing the only thing that students can really do would increase school-wide involvement, especially among upperclassmen.