There are the popular, the athletic, the smart, the musical, the stoners, the nerds and there are the people that belong to no group. And every year when homecoming rolls around, we wonder who from these groups will be chosen to represent Liberty High School. We wonder what of these qualities makes someone homecoming royalty. And now, it is time for the truth to come out.

When those homecoming royalty election ballots are handed out, there are many different types of reactions.

There are the people who, in a frenzied panic, ask their friends who they should vote for, and end up simply following the crowd. There are those who don’t care who wins and just vote for their friends. There are the people who blindly believe that the winner has to be of the popular type, who have all the friends, who get invited to all the parties, who are loud and who are confident.

But really, how we should react is by thinking carefully about who truly cares about our school and the people in it.

Because even though many of us claim that we don’t care, winning homecoming royalty is something that each and every one of us wants deep down. And when someone wins and we feel that girl or boy doesn’t represent Liberty, we feel a sense of frustration at the voting system or at the people who voted wrong.

I encourage all of you patriots to think carefully when evaluating that little piece of paper in front of you, because that little piece of paper signifies something hugely important to our class.

Being homecoming royalty doesn’t mean that you are popular, or athletic, or smart or any of the above groups. Bring royalty means you are kind, compassionate, proud to be a patriot, confident, happy, encouraging and nice.