Although the novelty of many Parker traditions has worn off by the time we are in the Upper School, one thing I’ve looked forward to my entire Parker career is the Twelve Days Morning Ex. The idea of being onstage, singing a happy song, and performing a goofy skit or showing a video with my close friends has always brought a smile to my face. Watching Twelve Days grow closer each year has built up my excitement to participate.

Twelve Days is meant to be a unifier of the senior class, one of many “last hurrah”-esque moments which take place throughout the year. To me, there’s something special about this twelfth grade, though: the whole school is watching, the pre-break buzz and the holiday spirit are in the air, and the much of the audience is filled the warm feeling of familiarity of tradition.

What most of the audience doesn’t know is that the choosing of skits for this year’s Twelve Days was stressful, to say the least. Instead of rallying around a common goal — making the Twelve Days Morning Ex as enjoyable as possible for the Parker community — the seniors wound up vastly divided over which groups of friends would perform which skits.

To me, competition for skits is somewhat natural — certain groups of friends will always have the same numbers as other groups of friends and want to perform the same skits. Problems arise when the competition for a specific skit overshadows the unifying purpose of Twelve Days — which is exactly what happened this year.

I wasn’t exactly shocked to hear of the Twelve Days spirit being diminished by an inter-friend group clash — such things are bound to happen at Parker, a school heavy with friend groups that can be exclusive, to say the least — but I was nevertheless disappointed that another Parker event with the power to bring people together had wound up dividing the population instead.

This is absolutely not to say that Twelve Days should be eliminated — at all. So many Parker students have looked forward to the tradition for so long that its removal would cause widespread upset among members the student body, including myself. Nor am I suggest prohibiting seniors from choosing their own groups. After all, Twelve Days is meant to celebrate friendship and as seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, seniors should be trusted to settle any disputes over skits without hurt feelings or adult involvement.

I understand that groups of friends want to remember their Twelve Days skit by the fact that it was performed between just that group, and perhaps I will understand that fact better next year when it’s my turn to perform. But I would encourage the senior class to embrace the spirit of inclusivity and community embedded in Twelve Days — after all, at the MX’s end, the entire class ends up onstage together.