For many people, looking back to their best high school days means highlighting their homecoming game and dance experience – but it works a little differently at the Northern Utah Academy of Math, Engineering and Science (NUAMES).

Now, before you start pitying us poor NUAMES kids, stop to think for a minute. Sure, homecoming may have been fun, but I’ll bet it came with its ups and downs.

Girls, think about dress shopping. As exciting as it is to get asked or ask someone to a dance, the frustration starts here.

Dress shopping takes an insane amount of time – running from store to store trying to find the perfect dress gets old fast.

Not to mention the prices on those things . . . you finally find your fairytale gown, only to discover that you would have to spend your life savings to buy it. No fun.

Similarly, the dance and the date itself can be expensive. Whether you split the check or not, the cost of the day date, dinner, tickets and outfit eventually adds up.

Luckily, if you strive on this kind of excited-but-stressed feeling, NUAMES still offers plenty of dances, from the semi-formal winter ball to the all-out schmancy prom.

As has been tradition for years, the first dance is a stomp, held on the patio behind D2 and fittingly named the Stomp Under the Stars.

Although NUAMES doesn’t hold their own homecoming, there’s nothing preventing students from attending the game and dance at other high schools.

NUAMES students come from all over northern Utah, so attending another school’s homecoming is a nice opportunity for them to visit old friends who went to different high schools.

We NUAMES Nighthawks don’t have our own sports teams (thus no homecoming game or dance), but we practice robotics almost religiously. As you can tell, we’re not afraid to admit it. Why else would you go to a math, science and engineering school?

But robotics is just one of the many extracurricular activities NUAMES offers – there’s still model United Nations, math club, Technology Student Association, cyber patriot and so on.

But again, for students who thrive on big social events like homecoming, there are options.

For instance, NUAMES kids are allowed to attend Weber State’s homecoming festivities as long as they have a Wildcard.

Just asking around a bit, though, it did seem like most NUAMES kids were not aware they had this opportunity. Once they found out, some still seemed to be hesitant about attending.

Personally, I can understand that going to so many events with mainly traditional college students can be intimidating, but I think it would be a great way to meet new people.

I think NUAMES not having its own homecoming isn’t a tragic thing – we’re offered so many more opportunities than traditional high school students, and I believe the tradeoff is worth it.