Water Wars is a yearly tradition that seniors look forward to every year. Kids have their teams picked out years in advance, stock up on water guns and balloons, and use their best stalking skills to try and win it all. It is all supposed to be fun and games, but once the money pool starts racking up, do kids start to take things too seriously? What is too far? Most of the staff can agree that things get taken too far sometimes whether it is because of the money or the over competitiveness.
Water Wars is supposed to be all for fun. It should be a friendly competition between students to celebrate the end of the year. Kids team up in groups of five and pay $25 each to play. A bracket is made and teams verse each other until they get to the final few.
However, many students have been upset with many things about Water Wars this year. Many of the rules are too strict and many students have taken things too far. Some students take the competition too seriously when it is supposed to be fun.
Some rules have been upsetting players because the rules make it near impossible to get some people out.
As a senior myself, I was very excited to join water wars. I mean, after 12 years of schooling with the same people, it should be fun to play with my fellow students. However, I was met with new drama everyday. Either it was immaturity, or just straight up lying from other students, I found the enjoyment that was supposed to be in the game dwindling everyday.
High schoolers can never be trusted to not take things too far. It’s easy to realize that many teenagers think they are over the law, or think that they are invincible.
Of course, I’ve had my moments of rebellion. But when I heard about the amount of students that got the police involved, or in verbal arguments because of a game, I thought it was ridiculous.
The main motivation behind this erratic behavior is the promised cash prize for each team player if they win: almost $1000 for each student. $1000 for high school students is basically like winning the lottery, especially right before college.
However, if you really calculate the statistics in your head, especially right at the beginning of the game, your chances of winning are very little. Because of this, I was very confused why some students went as crazy as to get the police involved within the first week. If you’re gonna do something as irresponsible as that, at least wait until the finale, when $1000 is at stake.
The excessive arguing is also tolling on the student that runs the games. Absolutely no one wants to make the decisions on what team is eliminated, and what team moves on. But someone has to do it. And I’ve heard stories about people being very rude to the person who took the time out of their senior year to run the games, something that almost no one else wanted to do.
Overall, if someone asked me if I would redo water wars and play again, I would say yes. However, I wish that students would calm down and not take things too seriously. At the end of the day, it is just a game, and $1000 can be spent off in a week anyways. The end of senior year should be fun and we should all remind each other that we are all just looking for a harmless, memorable game.
