When I was a student in college, Alumni weekend was never really something to look forward to. Yeah, we got to see friends that had graduated already and we got to play against old teammates but in reality it was just another weekend. Now that I have graduated, Alumni weekend was something that I hyped up. I looked forward to it for weeks! But it's over now and I realized that my thoughts about it haven't changed much. It's just another weekend.
As an assistant coach for a college lacrosse team, I sometimes get to jump into practice and act as a player, so when we I got up to school on Friday the thing I was most excited about was getting to play the next morning. I didn't have a drop of alcohol purely for the fact that I wanted to enjoy the game and not be hungover on the sidelines as I had seen happen to alumni in the past. I played the entire 40 minutes, while spending half of it hunched over trying to catch my breath because of how out of shape I am. Other than that everything went smoothly and with only having enough players for full field 7v7 the old people won! GO NECWL ALUMNI! It brought so much joy to see all my former teammate that I decided that I wanted to get ready with them to go out just like we had done for years prior.
It's 9 o'clock on Saturday night and here I am in a dorm room doing hair, make up, wardrobe changes and shots with the people I love. It reminded me of my freshman year and I needed a good dose of the happy days when life was simple and all you had to worry about was what shoes you were going to wear. We pregamed at my old apartment which was so sentimental, when I walked in and noticed it had the same smell. Then we all got a ride up to one of the biggest parties I had been to at school.
I gave many hugs, asked a whole lot of "how are you's?" and reminisced on the days we spent together while envying all the underclassmen. Alumni weekend was basically just a big tease. I drove by buildings, ate the usual take out and wished I could go to college forever, and I am unsure of whether my feelings next alumni weekend will change. I met new faces and missed the old ones but I could do that any other weekend that I wanted. When you have close ties to your Alma Mater, live three hours away, and visit often it doesn't really matter what word you put in front of the weekend, it's always going to be just another weekend.
