The tradition of homecoming King and Queen is one that has been endlessly romanticized since the Stone Age. For some odd reason, it’s thought to be the ultimate honor in high school to receive this nebulous award for “contributing the most to the school and the community.” This bizarre and altogether vague requisite is a very bold and subjective one to vote on, and no amount of maudlin reflection and romanticizing will save it from being what it inevitably is: school-sanctioned drama fodder.

The first and most glaring problem with this tradition, of course, is what it entails. A number of hopefuls, who think that they have contributed to their community, are nominated and then disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone the “everyone is equal, everyone is a winner” mentality under any condition, but the fact of the matter is, this is important enough to people to cause actual grief. That, coupled with the fact that the winners of this puerile competition are then paraded around as actual royalty, only fuel the unnecessary pettiness of this electoral monstrosity.

This then leads me to my next qualm, the voting bloc in general. People aren’t going to actually consider the “contributions to the community” that a person has made; they are going to vote for whomever they like more. That’s not to say that some people don’t actually take into consideration genuine qualities, such as amiability, but I strongly doubt that people vote according to the negligible precondition that the award requires.

I can appreciate the fact that the homecoming king and queen is an old tradition and that some people respect it because of the auspicious nature they feel it holds. But I genuinely feel that the award itself is not worthy of being considered anything but a high school attempt at something magnanimous; something that could have meant even one iota to me if it were differently run or approached. But alas, this ill-wrought competition of an award has sunken into the helot of a constituency of die-hards who sentimentally wish for its return.

I’m glad WHS has moved beyond this trivial tradition, because no amount of maudlin reflection can save this tradition from being what it inevitably is, a fundamentally flawed attempt at a genuine sentiment that in the end falls flat.