Pranks

Pranks, like everything else, come in all shapes and sizes. They can involve phones, places, people; they can range from funny to serious. Oftentimes, there is a fine line between something annoying and something that can actually hurt people. As the school year draws to a close, seniors feel the need to make a mark upon the school. The two particular pranks that they did are still being talked about on Facebook and one even made the paper Friday; thus, I still find it an entirely relevant subject to talk about.

They have been around since the beginning of time. Tricking people and watching them make a fool of themselves? Well, those have always been a devilish delight to many, particularly when the person in question happens to be incredibly gullible. There has even been made an industry out of it (something evident as you walk into certain sections of Five Below) and inventions made out of it. My sister and I (well, mostly my sister) have made it a sport to team up on each other and thing of new things we can do. Many a time she has sprayed silly string on me, put a whoopie cushion where I'm about to sit, called me pretending to be other people, etc. Not to mention all of those times when she has told me something and I believed it. While these are often quite annoying, most of the time they do actually prove to be quite funny in hindsight.

Many adults dismiss pranks as immature and childish, acting as if either of those qualities are a bad thing. I'm sure that many of the adults at my school dismissed the pranks at our school as such. Yet as children, isn't this the time for us to be immature and childish? As a teenager, life is a ticking time bomb because sooner or later reality will dawn on us. Why don't we enjoy things while we can? It might even rid us of our teenage angst a little bit. It's not our fault that so many adults are so grounded, worn by the cruel ways of the world.

Of course, I should mention a little disclaimer. Often, pranks can be taken too far. They can hurt feelings and destroy property or worse, they can cause physical harm. The one that made the newspaper- a food fight- could have turned out much worse than it was. It could have caused fights to ensue, it could have made it impossible for the next lunch period to it, and it could have made things very unsanitary. Not to mention, those poor janitors take enough crap and shouldn't have had to end up cleaning that mess. Those pranks are exceptions.

Yet harmless pranks are downgraded too. Many are so quick to yell when they are covered in silly string, to yell when they happen to receive a prank call and yell when their rooms face a change in decoration. Are these annoying to pick up? Yes. Ultimately, people need to lighten up though. While it would be nice for hte pranksters to clean up their own mess, it's not the end of the world to clean. People need to stop bitching and moaning and have a little bit of fun. Maybe engage in it themselves every once in a while.

The above prank that I mentioned only involved a select group of seniors. The second and more harmless prank was the Official Senior Prank, the lasting effects that seniors leave before they go. This one did not need to be stomped out by the adults but yet it was. On Friday, the seniors arranged a flash mob of dancers performing the Cha-Cha slide on the second floor crossover between second and third period. Since this was posted on Facebook, many adults were aware and they posted guards all over. One friend of mine argued, "What if someone got hit when people started dancing? What if a special ed kid got into the fray?" Honestly, the dancers would know to move out of the way of people coming and they would move aside so the special ed kid can pass by (even though those kids should be looked after by their assigned assistant). My other friend mentioned a school getting sued when a flash mob's movement pushed a girl down a flight of stairs and paralyzed her (although in our school, the next flight of stairs was too far away to do that). I fail to see how this would be a safety hazard, although it might cause crowds that might make people late to classes (oh the horror of that!).

It would be very funny if a group of seniors were to all prank call the school at once. I don't know how they would do that, but it still would be funny if I heard about it. In terms of prank calling, I don't see what the problem is. There's no mess to be cleaned up, no one is hurt and it's funny! What's the worst thing? Wasted time? Please. Obviously, this would become a problem if kids at home frequently did this and ran up the phone bills but otherwise it's quite harmless. Though Caller I.D. can put a damper on things, a real prank call can actually end up being quite fun to put on (especially when it's people you know in real life!).

Obviously, the prank has to be put into context. In my experience though, pranks are usually funny and harmless though sometimes annoying.

Stage a good prank every once in a while on family members and friends and it will do wonders! Warning: You might actually find yourself loosening up and being a kid again.