Caesar salad and handmade Fettucine and breadsticks, as far as the eye can see. Every Friday before a race, Jacob Huynh (12) finds himself with the rest of the cross country team, slurping down bowls of pasta. 

“We basically get together and carb load,” Huynh said. “After we eat, we just gather together and play card games and board games, and it’s always a very nice night.”

The tradition, part of longstanding history of Friday Pasta Parties, comes from a coach interaction between schools. Coach Amanda Sandstrom heard about MC’s practice of communal carb-loading and decided to implement a Westview version.

“It went that [MC] freshman had no idea it would happen,” Huynh said. “And when they went over to the coaches house for the first one there would be a giant pile of communal spaghetti for everyon to eat from on the table with a cloth.”

Pasty Parties were something that cross-country runners weren’t able to attend last year, due to COVID-19 risks. Yet both new and old members are participating this year with gusto—on a recent Friday, nearly 20 runners sat down in their teammate’s backyard, pasta bowls in hand.

Huynh said he enjoys initiating new members of cross country to the tradition, which has long been a staple of the team’s closeness.

“It’s really to get to know the people you aren’t that familiar with integrated into the team, Huynh said. “It’s a good way of making new friends because you get to see your teammates outside of a track setting.”

Similarly, for ASB, now more than ever, the intersection of old traditions with new students has been crucial to the development of bonding in the class. ASB member Brad Brady (11) said that since much of ASB’s makeup is freshmen and sophomores who had never been on campus, establishing a growing camaraderie has been a central focus in the first quarter of the school year.

“Since ASB has to be so closely connected, and since we’re working together for so many hours of the day, it’s important that everyone has someone that they’re comfortable turning to for questions,” Brady said.

Working alongside fellow students who have never been on campus before has been a challenge, especially because all of ASB has had less than two full years of a normal high school experience. The problem has been the same for many GOLD members. 

“I think we’ve definitely worked with a learning curve,” ,” Band President Katie Jacques (12) said. “But as time passes people become more comfortable, and GOLD feels more and more friendly as a whole.”

As a part of the return to campus, many student organizations are working hard to welcome new members into old traditions. ASB had their first Inter-class Relations event (ICRs) of the year on Sept. 18.

ASB students in pod shirts and crazy attire gathered in a backyard for an evening of icebreakers, pod challenges, and bonding.  Kody’s Kult, Michael’s Minions, Aditi’s Administration, and Amy’s Army duked it out over a series of Kahoot questions.

The night was the latest of a long-held tradition in which ASB students gather outside of school to develop friendships besides those they form within school. Usually hosted at an ASB member’s home, ICRs consist of icebreakers and snacks.

“I think our ICR actually went really well in terms of helping us make new connections to each other,” Brady said. “I’m now working with and asking for help from people I didn’t talk to before.”

Like ASB, GOLD members have been facilitating new bonds and reviving old ones. 

“There’s all these traditions surrounding tournaments that we haven’t been able to do because of the pandemic,” trombone player Karthik Kumar said. “Now that the competition season has started, I’m really excited to get back into them.”

One tradition within the band is Secret Steve. Within each instrument section, section leaders organize a name swap in which each person is assigned to someone else. Each tournament, band members bring food and snacks for their assigned person, in an anonymous exchange similar to Secret Santa. 

“We put all the names in a hat and picked out random names,” Kumar said. “I think it’s interesting because you never really know what you’re going to get from your Secret Steve, so there’s always an element of surprise.”

Kumar has fond memories of Secret Steve from two years ago and looks forward to finding out who has been buying him his favorite snacks this year as well. Before his last tournament, he found himself snacking on Oreo thins and sea salt and pepper Skinny Pop popcorn.

“For me, it was a fun return back to normal,” Kumar said. “While we were only given one person’s name, we would also discuss what people got for their Secret Steve’s and it did lead to some interesting conversations.”

Outside of Secrete Steve, individual parts of GOLD also have their own rituals. These small-group activities, like the production team’s habit of congregating in an IHOP after the last show of the year, are tokens of student familiarity and lend to an atmosphere of friendship. Similarly, ASB also splits up its members into smaller groups, called ‘pods,’ in order to facilitate personal connection.

Both over quarantine and during the normal school year, ASB has split into teams of eight to 10 students under the leadership of one of four ASB officers, for informal competitions. Pod members compete to finish various challenges, like scavenger hunts organized by ASB leaders. While the point-tracking is loosely recorded, these challenges develop a closeness within pods that lasts beyond the classroom.

“[Pod point tracking] never really happens successfully because people forget,” Brady said. “But the winning pod team gets bragging rights, and it’s really fun to have that competitive spirit spurring us on.”

Some pod competitions are done at ICRs, a recent example of which was a Kahoot on who knew the class best, the winners of which got pod points. 

“Ultimately, like some of the other things we do, [pods] are just meant to prompt inter-class relations,” Brady said, “so that we can be more effective together, and get things done faster.”

For all student groups, this playful camaraderie, which will continue to build throughout the school year, is important for stressful moments. For cross country runners, especially, knowing that there are friends running with them can make a difference during a race. 

“Having your teammate next to you really helps you,” Hyunh said. “If you have a close bond to the person you’re running with, it helps with the mental strength you need to have in the moment.”

In last month’s rescheduling of the Homecoming rally, as well, the strong ties that ASB members had consciously developed through various bonding events helped them through the reconfiguration of long-planned performances. 

“All of us need to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to work effectively with each other as a group,” Brady said. “And in something as big as ASB, which affects so many people on campus, it’s really important that we develop that knowledge and understanding in order to achieve our end goals.”