This week is my last homecoming week before I will be the one who has to “come home.”

Though I am traditionally not a sentimentalist, I can’t help but find myself at odds with the thought that I won’t feel the same buzz of excitement around campus after this week. There is no other week of school that is so jam-packed with activities: from something as simple as free donuts and cider in the student center to something as ornate as Ashland’s traditional Banana Splittin’ Competition (exactly what it sounds like--banana split eating contest, but bigger and waaaay better) to the classic homecoming football game, I’m going to miss the energy that all these activities bring to campus.

Attending a small university means that homecoming is a big deal--it’s not just an opportunity to see alumni friends that weekend, but it’s also a time to come together and enjoy our community. From start to finish, homecoming week is about enjoying your community. We celebrate our organizations with window paintings in the student center. We bond with new people over the ridiculous costumes we see at Banana Splittin’. We support our friends at the Powderpuff game. We cheer on our team to victory at the football game. We all grow together with these shared experiences.

For me, this week is the biggest reminder that my time here is growing shorter and shorter. More often than not, this idea fills me with great hope (and anxiety): I’m excited to see where my future takes me, even if I can’t see it now. But in preparation for all the fun I’ll be having this week with the friends I’ve made throughout the years, melancholy is the main focus.

Luckily for me, I am not a sentimentalist (as I said before). I can snap out of it. I know deep down that as much as I will miss the energy and excitement packed into this one week, I will cherish it as it happens. I will enjoy every second of fun, laughter and friendship. I will let myself fall in love with my university over and over again. I will allow my enjoyment to manifest every ounce of my time this week--because I refuse to focus on the fact that this is my last homecoming week.

I’m not sad that it’s over because it’s all still happening. WHy would I squander the time that I have wishing that I had more? The point is that we have what we have. I might as well maximize it.