Bona's Family

Here I go on another rant about how much I love St. Bonaventure. A couple weekends ago was parents weekend here a Bona's. The campus was flooded with parents eager to see their children, and students who, whether they admit it or not, were stoked to see their parents. There were generations of Bonnies on campus, legacy families, all with the common love of this small piece of heaven.

Some students had their whole families come -- moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents. Some families couldn't come, but I don't think a single person on campus felt alone. My mom was only able to come Saturday for a few hours, due to two soccer tournaments back home and my dad living in California. That didn't stop me from having the best parents weekend yet.

There's just something about Bona's that makes you feel welcomed wherever you are. Even though my actually family wasn't there I got adopted into nearly 20 of the families of my closest friends, teammates and non-biological sisters. Whether it was going out to dinner with one family or taking "family" pics with another at the team BBQ, I never felt like I was missing out on the family aspect of family weekend.

I remember when I first committed to Bona's my biggest fear was that it was so small. I had grown up in a small town and I wanted to get away from the "too close" knit community. I thought I wanted to be a number in a crowd where in your four years of college you would never meet 80 percent of the student body. Boy, was I wrong.

I love walking to class every day, waving, smiling and saying hello to more people than not. I love the excessive amount of time people wait to hold the door open from you. I love the welcoming vibe on the weekends no matter what class you're in, what sports team you're on, or where you come from.

I think family weekend is one of my favorite weekends at Bona's because our Bona Family at least doubles. If you ask me, every weekend at Bona's is "family weekend" because we are family. We live, eat, breathe, sleep, study, learn and grow up together, and if that doesn't make people family I don't know what else could.