One of the best parts of the school year is the two spirit weeks that occur in October and January of each academic year. After a fun week of different themes and competitions, Friday is of course wall day in which each grade gets a certain corner of the school and is tasked with decorating their wall to a specific theme. As a senior now, the class of 2022 has seen many good and bad walls throughout the years. In this article, I will be ranking some of the best walls I have seen the past three years and I hope to maybe inspire some of the younger grades who haven’t had a real taste of what a true wall day is because of Covid.

For the rankings, I will choose 4 walls from the past three years that I feel have had the best design, theme, props, student turnout, and student efforts. I will judge each wall off those factors and will eventually narrow them down to the best wall day theme and wall at Magnet since 2018.

Here are the nominees:

Senior Wall 2018: Aztec

As a freshman, we were all intimidated by the passion these seniors put into their Aztec theme. The costumes were incredible and went with the theme perfectly. Every senior was covered in face paint, feathers, and some sort of a crown.  The effort for this wall was next level as every inch was covered and the Aztec drawings and figures made the senior’s wall even better. The most essential part of any wall is a centerpiece item that is able to take up space and bring the wall together. This year, the seniors went with an Aztec pyramid with a lion on top. It did the job as this spirit week’s wall was a no-doubter for the best that particular week.

Junior Wall 2018: Vietnam

Another memorable wall from 2018 came from the junior class with their Vietnam wall theme. I remember there was controversy when the seniors beat the juniors for the best wall that year as the junior’s wall was very solid. The juniors had a great turnout as everyone looked like they had just come from battle. The juniors were able to add multiple props to their wall that year that took its whole appearance to the next level. They created a makeshift tank, had Vietnam communication stations, and even were able to get a canoe up the stairs and add it to their display. The props to this wall were some of the best we have ever seen and their effort was definitely apparent. There is no penalty for having too many props as the Juniors this year used that to their advantage.

Senior Wall 2019 (October): Egypt

After a strong Vietnam wall from the previous year, the former junior class, now seniors, came out strong with their Senior wall as Egypt was the best wall from this particular spirit week. The face paint, Egyptian tattoos, and costumes all fit perfectly for their theme. Probably the best part about the wall was the giant obelisk and the Egyptian hieroglyphics that covered all parts of the walls. Though not having the most props, this wall design was able to cover all inches of the senior area making it look complete.

Senior Wall 2019 (February): Vampire

Again another senior wall nominated. Not a surprise here as the Seniors almost always have the best wall. For this spirit week, the former seniors went for a twilight look as everyone came in fangs and fake blood all over themselves. While this wall may look bare in spots, the table centerpiece was a perfect fit for their vampire-esqe dinner full of blood and humans. The theme was simple which allowed everyone to come in dark outfits which called for more participation and easier costumes to make, but there are better costumes in this list for sure. Some important props of the wall were vampire coffins everywhere, a throne, and creeping paintings which helped set the dark mood. The Seniors also blacked out the lights and the windows which made the whole area seem eerie and made u feel like you were in the twilight.

Now, let’s rank some walls!

I have created a bracket and ranked the walls(in my opinion) from least to best. I will then go through each round and explain which walls move on and why.

Aztec v Vietnam:

Let’s first start with the top matchup between the 4th seed Vietnam and the 1st seed Aztec. Aztec by far had the best costumes and the most spirit out of all four walls. This senior class made wall day more fun than it has been in recent years. As a freshman, my class and other classes couldn’t wait to be a senior one day and experience what it feels likes to be at the top of the school during spirit week. The props were amazing and the enthusiasm was there. That’s not to say that the junior was short of great though. Vietnam is the best “junior” wall I have ever seen and had some of the best props. I still can’t imagine how they were able to get a canoe into the school and up the stairs. While Vietnam was something special, it still can’t top the number one overall seed in Aztec.

Egypt v Vampire:

For our second matchup, we have the 2nd seed Egypt and the 3rd seed Vampire. Egypt did the best job covering the whole senior area which is a tough task to do. They as always had a great spirit turnout and the facepaint and costumes were on point. However, Vampire’s centerpiece display and wall props were much better than Egypt’s. But, the vampire costumes were just not as good as Egypt’s and I feel that they had the worst costume turnout of any wall day mentioned on this list. For that, I will have to side with the number two seed as Egypt will advance to the final round against Aztec.

Final Round: Egypt v Aztec

Now it’s down to the final senior walls: Aztec and Egypt. By far, these walls had the most spirit, effort, best designs, best costumes, and overall made that particular spirit week one to remember. While the Egyptian wall was amazing, nothing beats the Senior’s Aztec wall from 2018. Maybe it’s the nostalgia that comes with that wall of being a freshman and experiencing your first wall day and seeing the seniors go crazy on Friday, but that wall is the best wall I have seen the past three years while I have been at Magnet. As for this year’s upcoming spirit week, the seniors have a lot to live up to. Because of the past couple of years of Covid, my class and the juniors were the only classes able to experience what a true wall day looked like. I feel as though it is the class of 2022’s duty to show the whole school what they have missed out on and finally bring a sense of excitement and normalcy that Magnet has missed out on because of the pandemic.