With the end of the year coming up, seniors have several things on their mind: final grades, graduation and, of course, the spork game!
“The game was a lot of fun while it lasted,” Sophie Alcumbrack McDaniel said. “It’s a beautiful tradition.”
Since seniors need their sporks until graduation to win the game, they often choose to personalize them. Alcumbrack-McDaniel decorated her spork by coating it in green, pink and purple gems. Rather than decorating it alone, she enjoyed decorating her spork with her senior friends.
“We had a little decorating party and talked about our sporks,” Alcumbrack-McDaniel said. “It got me hyped for the game.”
Pluto Meisler also opted for a shiny spork by painting it an iridescent bluish-purple coat.
“I wanted to make my spork shiny,” Meisler said. “I thought that wrapping it with wire and beads would be cool-looking, and I hot-glued everything so that it would stay in place.”
Lustrous sporks aren’t the only bedazzled sporks out there. Ellie Robbins decided to make her spork have cute, softer decorations by wrapping it with yarn.
“I wanted my spork to have hair so that I could braid it and play with it and so that I could remember it,” Robbins said. “I gave it a name: [Sparkle].”
Whether they’re choosing to make it visually appealing or to make it more memorable, these seniors all wanted their spork to be special.
“Lots of people don’t decorate their sporks, which I think is boring. If you’re going to carry something around for a semester, it should be fun,” Meisler said.
While most seniors believe that decorating the spork is part of the fun, others choose not to decorate.
“I don’t see the point of putting my creative energy into something temporary,” Sean Carroll said. “I don’t feel like it’s a part of my identity, especially since I could get out.”
The spork game isn’t the only thing that’s temporary. Vivienne Simmons decorated her spork, but the design quickly faded.
“I made it a vampire, but apparently Sharpie rubs off,” Simmons said. “I might [redecorate it] but I kind of like it plain.”
America Gomez-Dominguez also had a Sharpie design on their spork, which faded after a while. Their friend had drawn on it, but neither of them realized that Sharpie isn’t the most durable material. They don’t mind though, since they’re still enjoying the game.
“I love the spork game,” Gomez-Dominguez said. “I don’t advertise this much, but I’m a very competitive person.”
Gomez-Dominguez also points out that having a bedazzled spork doesn’t affect how long you’re going to last in the game.
“It’s satisfying to send the pretty, decorated sporks to Sean’s spork graveyard,” Gomez-Dominguez said.
While most seniors got the opportunity to decorate their sporks, there are seniors no longer in the game who have their own design ideas.
“If I could have a spork to match my outfit, I would,” Ruby Lahodny said.
She describes her style as being varied, so she would have enjoyed a matching spork.
“The vibe I go for every day can be summed up as 2010s pastel goth, time traveler confused about how she got there or, most commonly, Midwestern Dipper Pines.” Lahodny said. “Maybe pink, black, rhinestones and Bigfoot.”
Josie Simpson used to have a spork with a swirly design.
“I was planning on redecorating it with nail polish if I hadn’t gotten sporked, and I think I would have redecorated it in a similar way to its original design,” Simpson said.
Whether seniors choose to decorate or not, the spork game has something for everyone. It has creativity, bonding, competition and originality. It’s part of the uniqueness of Community.
