Freshman Janessa Salazar sports a pink shirt and makes a heart to show that pink stands for love. Photo by: Layne Holloway

By Layne Holloway

Colors are chosen for a reason. It is a proven fact that colors can change how a person’s brain reacts to different things. The real question is what colors change Plymouth High School students’ moods and why.

Junior Casey McDonald said that her two favorite colors are red and blue. “I love blue eyes [or] when somebody wears a pretty blue shirt,” she explained. Her other favorite color, red, is one of her favorites because “I’m a Plymouth fan and an IU fan.” Both of these school’s sport red colors. PHS has days where all students can wear same colored shirts to match. “I think it’s pretty cool how the school tries to get the school together to do the same thing,” she said. PHS’s school colors are red and white. McDonald thinks that these colors symbolize patriotism. She said, “[They] could symbolize the Pilgrims and the start of our country.” McDonald explained how each color represents a different type of mood. “Colors like yellow, orange, and red are more of happy colors. While brown, black, navy blue, and darker colors like that symbolize sadness or emptiness. Or pink, white, and red symbolize the sort of love, like on Valentine’s Day,” she said.

Freshman Ryan MacLain revealed that his favorite color is also blue. “I guess I just saw it when I was a little boy and just started liking it,” he explained, “It makes me feel good.”
MacLain commented on how not all of the students participate on the days where PHS attempts to match. MacLain said that in his opinion red and white symbolizes “anger and peace.” He also explained that picking out clothes in the morning can be behaviorally motivated. “People will pick out clothes to wear depending on their mood.  Many people don’t realize it but they do,” he said. Wearing uniforms has been a hot topic over the years and if MacLain could pick the color of them he said they would be blue. “I like wearing blue,” he noted.

Junior Lauren Tanner said her favorite color is yellow. “I like yellow because I love summer. It reminds me of sun and its just a fun, bright color,” she explained. Tanner thinks the idea of PHS wearing the same color is creative but “it should be a fun color and not just plain black or white.” To her, PHS’s red and white colors represent “happiness and fierceness.” She said that when someone wears a bright color it is hard to be in a bad mood. If Tanner could pick the color of school uniforms she would choose red, white, and black. “I think black just looks like you own the place and are the best and most sophisticated,” she said.

Junior Blake Miller’s favorite color is lime green. “I like the color green, and green things such as grass,” he stated. Miller believes that wearing different colors can change a person’s mood. “If you wear bright colors you might be brighter that day, and if you wear dark colors that might mean you’re sad or mad,” he said. Miller would want PHS’s uniforms to be green or yellow. He explained that it “would just be cool.”