Banquet

By: Stephanie Martinez

If you didn’t grow up going to a boarding academy, the term “banquet” may be unfamiliar to you. No, it is not a fancy fundraiser where rich doctors go with their trophy wives. It is also not a party where we dance and listen to music. By looking up its very definition, it is a large meal for many people. There’s so much more to banquets than just that. It might seem odd at first that we don’t have proms or homecomings, but to us, it’s the best.

Our annual banquets are planned and executed by our student’ association team. We lovingly refer to them as “SA”. With the recent pandemic and everything, it can be hard to plan things, especially bigger gatherings but our SA blew this event out of the water. For months and months, they poured out their hard work and we are incredibly thankful for everything they put together for us. This year’s theme was… *drumroll* Around the world. The dream was for us to all come aboard a cruise ship that, well you guessed it, travels around the world. It’s like we picked up random people from different countries and places. Some incorporated their heritage into their costumes, while others dressed as tourists. Most people wore clothes from different cultures and countries. There were so many colorful dresses and suits that made my eyes open a little wider. It’s truly beautiful to see all the varieties of diversity we have here on campus and to get to know each other’s backgrounds a little bit better.

It’s crazy to see all the creativity that people are capable of. If you think the teachers don’t get as excited as us, you’re wrong. One teacher even went as an Australian explorer. (I secretly wanted to ask her if there were any koalas nearby, but I held myself together). You might be wondering at this point, “Stephanie but what did you go as?” You see my dear friends, I may seem like the most social person out there, but in big gatherings, I tend to stay in the corners. I intended to wear a hoodie and jeans while studying for my biology quiz that wasn’t even for another three days, but my roommate did not agree with this grand scheme. I walked out of the dorm wearing a long red dress that looked like it could be from Hawaii, so I ran with that. Did I still wear my white sneakers and study for biology the entire time? You bet your pesos I did. Did I even get a good grade on that biology quiz? Not important, I think we have better things to talk about here.

We held the banquet in the old gym across campus so it was a nice change of environment. There were pretty fairy lights and a different food stations everywhere you turned. There were several areas to take photos, including a gorgeous Japanese waterfall replica. Man, that was a good waterfall. You could “travel” to Mexico to eat tacos or pupusas, or to Italy for crepes and gelato. On the other side of the gym, you could get sushi rolls and noodles from Asia or a lentil dish from Africa. No one walked away hungry or unsatisfied with the food. Our cafe workers put so much love into all the seasoning and spices, and man did they deliver! I still dream about it sometimes I’m not gonna lie to you guys.

There’s always an after activity following the banquet, and this year SA went above and beyond. After I tell you, you’re going to be jealous you weren’t here. For the activity, we *another drumroll* had a bunch of bouncy games and other inflatables! Every kid’s dream was happening in real life, right here in our gym. We had a life sized Foosball and a giant hungry hippo game (just to name a few). For a few hours, we weren’t teenagers who had tests coming up or work the next morning, we were carefree kids having fun and laughing until our lungs gave out. My friends and I played tag all around the castles and courses that ended with us having piggyback ride wars. Needless to say, it was the perfect way to end off the night.

This is just one of the many, many events we have here at Great Lakes Adventist Academy. If you’d like to see some of the outfits I was talking about, or the food stations, or the inflatables head over to our Facebook page. We post pictures of pretty much everything, so give us a Like and stay in touch.