This year’s Senior Rally took place Wednesday morning and was full of all types of emotions. Teachers and seniors gathered at the annual event to inspire seniors to “Finish Strong” and get excited about their last year at Foothill.

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This year’s Senior Rally took place Wednesday morning and was full of all types of emotions. Teachers and seniors gathered at the annual event to inspire seniors to “Finish Strong” and get excited about their last year at Foothill.

Seniors entered loud and excited to see what was in store for their Senior Rally. Students sat in areas designated as the five personified emotions from Disney’s new movie, “Inside Out.” 

The teachers got into character as well. Melanie “Captain” Lindsey was Joy, vice principal Ron Briggs played Anger, Sadness was portrayed by Justin Frazier, and Heather Ferris took on the role of Disgust.

“Heads or Tails” was the first activity of the rally. Seniors anticipated the outcome of a coin toss by either placing their hands on their head or on their “tail.”

Choruses of triumphant “Yeah!”s and disappointed “Awes!” were heard as students slowly sat back down when their prediction was incorrect. The senior class rallied together and cheered for their favorite finalists.

After the fun and games, Lindsey showed a video by Kid President, titled “Pep Talk for Teachers and Students” to help inspire the seniors to finish strong.

A new concept that was introduced at this rally is a way for seniors to help out their peers by “Paying it Forward.” Seniors that know of another senior going through a tough time, or having some problems, can write a “Pay it Forward” request to help out that student.

The goal of the “Pay it Forward” is to help the students who need help even if they are too afraid to ask for it. This new idea is meant to encourage the seniors to be selfless.

Laughter was heard throughout Spirito Hall during the next activity, a lip sync battle. Volunteers for the battle were divided into a boys’ group and a girls’ group.

One member of each group went head to head in an “epic” 30-second lip sync battle to a surprise song. Songs ranged from Taylor Swift’s new hits to Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”

Due to a tie, the two teams battled in one final round. The girls sang and danced to the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” and the boys’ song was “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. The final cheers from the audience deemed the boys’ group the winners.

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Senior Troy Kauffman was an avid participant in the lip sync battle. “The lip sync battle was pretty sweet,” he said. Kauffman said he has mixed feelings his senior year.

“I’m not excited to leave but I’m also excited to move on to the next chapter.”

The next thing Lindsey had in store for the seniors was a bit of motivation for their Dragon Talks, which are presented in the spring. Dragon Talks are modeled after the TED Talks, where speakers spread ideas through an 18 minute presentation.  

This year, seniors watched a TED Talk by Jake Ducey, a young adult who dropped his dream of becoming a businessman to travel and educate himself on the world around him, once he realized his original plan didn’t bring him happiness.

Lindsey’s goal for the Dragon Talks is to bring the seniors back to what they are passionate about and allow them to work on something they enjoy.

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“The TED Talk that they gave, that guy Jake, he was motivating,” senior Joselin Severiano said.

One final activity was a competition between each of the different emotion groups. Five volunteers from each emotion had to pop a balloon by hugging their leader, who was member of Foothill’s Associated Student Body (ASB), with the balloon in between them. The Fear group took the win for that game.

To finish off the rally Lindsey gave a brief, but encouraging, speech about “trusting yourself” and the decisions you make your future. Lindsey used the analogy of comparing senior year to the finish of a race and that the seniors are very close to the end of their “race.”

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Lindsey expressed her feelings about the importance of the rally.

“We know what [the seniors are] feeling. We know how ready they are to be done and to go to college, but school’s not done with them, yet, and there is still a lot to learn before they go on to that next step.”

“[This rally is] to inspire them, encourage them, motivate them, to connect them to each other and to the teachers and to their school,” Lindsey said.