I've never really been in a parade before.

Well, I was when I was in high school and on the volleyball team. We'd ride on the firetruck.

But I've never been in the homecoming parade for my university; actually walking through it and handing stuff out and interacting with people.

Sure, I helped with the St. Stephen's float when I was a sophomore. But I didn't even go to the parade because I was at a conference two hours away. (Dat Popemobile though...)

But if you get the opportunity to do a university homecoming parade DO IT; it's so much fun. Here's my experience from this year.

1. You might actually get a chance to meet the Grand Marshal of the parade.

(Ali Farokhmanesh was the Grand Marshal this year. He's a former UNI Men's Basketball player and hit the shot that locked up the win against Kansas in 2010.)

2. I got to wake up super early to get the float together. Decorations assemble!

3. You see other people's floats and want to know more about their ideas or just take a picture with them because it's so cool.

(This guy was stuck in hisgolf cart from around 8 a.m. until his float got through the parade.)

(This guy's stilts were simply awesome. He also couldn't stop moving once he had them on.)

4. Everyone gets stoked when they line up and get told that they can roll out.

5. When you actually reach the people they're all excited too.

6. When you see people you recognize you give them a shout out (and extra candy).

I actually ran up to someone and gave them a hug, thinking they were somebody from church, but they were actually someone from my Chinese foreign language class. (I didn't realize this until they said "Ni hao!" (hello) very surprised/excitedly.)

7. Walking in a parade can be a very warm activity. You layer for assembling the float, only to shed, like, five of those layers between all the walking and handing out candy.

9. Frat guys and sorority girls appreciate getting candy too; not just the kids.

And apparently they really like it when it's not the purple (grape) Frooties.

10. Rationing candy gets you to the end of the parade. If you ration candy, you're bound to have some left for the people at the end of the parade too.

11. Even though the band was far behind us, we started singing the fight song anyway.

12. When we reached the end of the parade the hunger was real.

Good thing the person in charge brought doughnuts and bananas. I also ran around with the extra doughnuts and ended up giving them away to some rugby boys and the group that was lined up behind them.

13. By the end of it, I got to backtrack and watch the end of the parade.

But I never did meet the Grand Marshal. I met the current Men's Basketball coach by accident instead. #THECoachBenJacobsen

So if you ever get to participate in a parade. DO IT.

It's a fun time. An adventure, really.