RAH! RAH! SIS-BOOM-BAH!

Have you ever had one of those days where suddenly you are transported back in time, like you're having an incredibly durable, time warping deja vu? That happened to me today at good ol' Red Lake District High School, as I was, along with about 300 other students, swept away on a wave of school spirit that hasn't been felt at that school for an incredibly long amount of time. *Flashback to grade 10, catching up to the opponent who is dribbling the ball down the court. I've almost got her as I go in for the pick, and I step on the back of her foot, twisting my ankle, and fall down swearing abominations in front of the whole school. I broke my leg. Nice.* But it was a different story today fortunately, as our school headed down to the gym to watch the senior girl RLDHS Rams basketball team take on the Nipigon Red Rock Lakers. As if a synapse exploded in a part of my brain, instantly I was painting warrior stripes on my face, adorning myself with any red and gold clothing I could find (I changed twice this morning....you should have seen what I originally had on...yikes!), hammering a wooden spoon on the side of a soup can, and blurting out HUSTLE, HUSTLE, USE YOUR MUSCLE, GO RAMS GO! Where the hell did all of this come from? I'm the art teacher for crying out loud! I'm stereotypically supposed to HATE sports, aren't I?

I'll admit, there is a part of me that definitely begrudges all of the extra attention that the sports community gets, especially as I'm in the process, along with a group of dedicated ladies, of getting an artists council up and running in our district. We had to cancel a workshop that we're offering this weekend because we only had 6 people in the whole community sign up. Six. All we were asking for was 10. When my art students did a drumming workshop last year and we hollered down the hallway for everyone in their classroom to come to the cafeteria to see our routine, only two classes out of the whole school came to see what was going on. And it was a really cool drumming routine. I was super proud of those kids. Artistically, our community is definitely lacking support where we need it the most; from our regular, every day community members.

Ironically, from the "talk on the streets", it's also what our community members say they crave the most. They want more music, more art workshops, more displays, more creative opportunities. Supposedly, some of our community members (and I use that term loosely) crave artistic culture so badly, that they have been given package deals from their employer to fly out to Winnipeg for only $99 (return fare) so that they can take in some of the creativity that Winnipeg has to offer. Well, how does that help our community? How does that bring us all together? Why isn't that money being used to bring artists and musicians into the community instead, and these lucky fellows that work for this establishment perhaps can get a discount ticket price from their employer? It's all being flown away instead.

So when I'm sitting in the middle of a wacky, frenetic basketball game with a herd of 300 cheering teenagers, I am amazed; not so much by the game and the players themselves (eventhough they were phenomenal and came back from a 3 or 4 basket loss to win the game by 2 points!) but by the incredible support and sense of community that is there in that room. What a sense of camaraderie! What a feeling that we can conquer anything if we all work together for a common cause! And perhaps you shudder, thinking, Right! Like a bunch of rah-rah-sis-boom-bah teenagers are going to make a difference in our community. Like anyone is going to make a difference in our community. But if you had been there, you would have seen the potential that was there. You would have seen the positive energy that radiated in that gym, and you would have seen the opportunity that our district has if we can capture the excitement of these youth and apply those sentiments to the actions of our community. It's there, rumbling, just below the surface.....

Thunder, thunder, thunderation
We're the Red Lake delegation
When we fight with determination
We create a sensation!

Couldn't that easily become a community mantra? This district isn't just a place to work; it's a place to live, and share, and support. Those kids get it; and I hope to hell that they stick around and bring that energy back into the district, where it belongs.

GO RAMS!