Last year, when our Dean of Students finished off the morning announcements by exclaiming, “Today is Veritas Vacation Day,” I temporarily lost the ability to hear out of my right ear. The girls in my homeroom screamed, paused to take a breath, and screamed some more. They jumped out of their seats and embraced each other (still screaming). They rushed out of my room, down the hall, and into the auditorium (still screaming). They stopped screaming as the choir took the stage and began to sing, but the screams hovered in their throats, waiting for one of the soloists to hit just the right note. That is the magic of Veritas Vacation Day. It transforms an all-girls Catholic college preparatory school into a Beatles concert.

Veritas Vacation Day is an annual surprise holiday at our school. No one knows when it is coming, not even the teachers. The students show up to school just like any other day. Many of them probably spent hours the night before studying for a math test. Some of them surely worked well past midnight polishing their English essays. They arrive at school anticipating that it will be just another day. Well, I should confess that many of them have become adept at predicting which day will be Veritas Vacation Day. Still, it doesn’t detract from their excitement when they find out that all classes and homework deadlines have been canceled, and an all-day carnival awaits them instead.

Even the most astute VV Day prognosticators did not foresee this year’s festivities. VV Day has almost always been held in the spring, so this year the planners decided to add to the surprise element by holding it the day before Halloween. Not a single student had any idea what was coming as they filed into the auditorium expecting to hear a speaker talk to them about drug-awareness to cap off our school’s Red Ribbon Week. There was even a projector screen displaying different facts about drug abuse. After the students quieted down, the student body president and vice-president introduced the speaker. (We will just call him John Doe.) Strangely, John Doe did not step up to the podium. He was wearing a portable microphone instead. As he neared the center of the stage, he exclaimed, “I am not John Doe, and today is Veritas Vacation Day.”

Girls leapt out of their seats and screamed as though the Jonas brothers had just showed up. My favorite part of the melee was that the ninth grade girls knew nothing about Veritas Vacation Day, but screamed just as loudly as the rest. The fake speaker brought out an improvisational comedy team to keep the girls entertained while the rest of the festivities were set up. After the show, the girls had an array of options to enjoy: an obstacle course, inflatable sumo wrestling, movies, Beatles Rock Band, Halloween-themed carnival games, face-painting, bingo and a number of other activities. They also enjoyed candy, popcorn, snow cones and hot dogs. If there is anything more exciting to these girls than VV Day, it is free food. We capped off the day with a costume contest, since the students and faculty are allowed to dress up for Halloween. I can proudly say that my Sherlock Holmes costume was a hit, but nothing beat the students who had dressed up as the Village People and led the entire school in a “YMCA” sing-along.

Every school and every job needs a Veritas Vacation Day. Imagine walking into U.S. Senate and seeing Republicans and Democrats singing in unison to “YMCA.” Imagine a high-powered law firm huddled in the conference room, eating popcorn and watching Twilight. Imagine a group of librarians screaming gleefully when their boss comes in to announce that they get the whole day off. We all just need a day to celebrate for no reason at all.

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