It’s Homecoming time. Throw out any orange shirts you own because you better not be seen wearing Clemson colors this week as the Wolfpack prepare to beat the Tigers this Saturday at the Homecoming football game. Drawing in alumni from across the country, people are excited to drive hundreds of miles to Carter-Finley Stadium to once again cheer on their beloved college team.
It’s easy to take the football games for granted when you’re a student. With home games, close away games, big screens in Talley Student Union and residence hall lounges, it’s easy to find a place to watch the game. But what about all those people out in the real world? Graduates no longer in Raleigh with jobs and families can’t always make the time and arrangements to relive those thrilling college experiences. If no other time of the season, the Homecoming game is the one that all alumni will make road trips and hotel reservations for to make it to the field.
But Homecoming is about so much more than just a football game. It’s like Thanksgiving, but without the turkey. (OK, and without the stuffing too.) It’s the best opportunity for the Wolfpack family to come together every year and appreciate all things NC State. It allows the student body to engage with so many of the other students from way back when.
There’s something special about the bond that NC State students can create, even if their college semesters didn’t overlap. My sister and her boyfriend graduated right before I got here. It’s great to learn from them all the things that “used to be” while sharing with them all the new things that have happened since. Despite all the innovations and advancements of State, some things just never change. Everyday experiences such as the food at Fountain Dining Hall, or staying up all night studying at D.H. Hill and highlights of the year like Packapalooza and basketball during March Madness. So many experiences — all of them memorable, all of them shared.
It’s the alumni who molded our campus into the one we fell in love with way back on our college tour … even though there was just so much brick. It’s the alumni who gave NC State the prestigious reputation that will stand out to employers. It’s the alumni who we can look up to for motivation to remind us that no matter how hard our classes can get, as we see the course number go up and our GPA go down, they successfully earned their State degree and so will we. Just because these fellow Wolfpackers don’t sit next to us, it doesn’t mean that they don’t affect our lives every single day.
With several events planned from Wear Red Get Fed and parades to theater productions and tailgates, NC State will without a doubt show off its exceptional school spirit with high hopes to encourage graduates to come celebrate. They won’t be disappointed to return to campus this fall and see the finished student center that was probably just a construction site during their time. Can you imagine walking through main campus without seeing the massive glass walls of Talley? I can’t. And let’s not forget about the new bookstore, which will make it basically impossible for the alumni to pass up the chance to buy even more red and white gear.
We hope to see all the alumni walking the bricks again this week, never as a guest, but always as a member of the Wolfpack. And to all these alumni who do, in fact, have the opportunity to step back on NC State’s campus, welcome home.
