In my four years at McKinney High School, I’ve yet to ask a girl to a dance.

It’s not that I’m afraid of rejection and don’t want to ask anyone, but that I’ve never been given the opportunity. See, the mark-your-calendar formal event is MORP (where girls ask guys); Therefore, the ladies do all of the asking, paying and preparations for the anticipated MORP dance, while guys like me get to sit back and wait for an invite. Although I shouldn’t complain, I feel as if this high school experience is atypical; it’s time the boys learn how to escort a girl to a dance. The tables should turn in favor of the girls.

I’m glad we’re “like no other” and all, but I wish we  would follow the stereotypical Texas homecoming traditions. There should be mums hanging over girls like dresses, the sound of cowbells muting the hallways, and giant blue and gold spirit signs blanketing every inch of our school.

Couples could watch the football game from the stands, dressed to the nines. The homecoming dance would follow the game, and would be a much more formal affair. Even if held in the school cafeteria (like Boyd did this year), it would make for great memories. We would welcome home visiting alumni, with all the pomp and circumstance typical of a down-home Texas football Friday night.

We live in the heart of football country, in a state where everything is big, big and bigger. It feels like McKinney High has dropped the ball by downplaying it’s own homecoming rituals — like we are somehow missing out on a sacred rite of Texas high school passage.

I’m an MHS senior. I missed my chance, but I hope my younger brothers will get theirs.

by Quinn Murray