Homecoming meant a lot to me last year. It was my first "big weekend" at Dartmouth, my first inoculation of the long-standing tradition in which Dartmouth is so famously steeped. And I had a great time. I helped build the bonfire, I ran in the freshman sweep, and I ran around the fire one hundred and two times--the wrong way (with the rest of the freshmen rugby players and to the chagrin of almost everyone else).
And as great a time as Homecoming is for freshmen, it's still not a weekend designed for them. Sure, it has things called the freshmen sweep and the freshmen bonfire, but Homecoming is decidedly not a freshmen holiday. If you don't believe me, you need only to look at the origin of the name of the holiday. While I'm not what you would call a "fabled historian" or "practiced etymologist," or even a "bright kid," I know that this holiday is called Homecoming because the football team returns home from a road game and many alums come up to support the Big Green. And, no matter how smooth the transition from high school life to Dartmouth has been for freshmen, I don't know that they've been here long enough to be able to fully call Dartmouth "home" yet. There are so many unique elements that coalesce to form the Dartmouth experience that to consider this place home after only one month is a bit presumptuous. But go ahead, freshmen, have a great time this weekend. Put your hand on the bonfire while it's being lit, run around a giant flaming structure, go to all the Dartmouth Night activities, try to get into frats, whatever. Just have a great time and start enjoying Dartmouth as much as you can, before it's changed into something you can't even recognize.
Homecoming meant a lot to me last year as my first big weekend at Dartmouth. But this year it still has all the same newness and excitement because this will be my first Homecoming as a Greek-affiliated student. Hopefully, that will mean something more than just the fact that this time I'm actually paying for all the beer I drink. And just as freshmen can't expect to know everything about Dartmouth after only a month or so, I can't stake any claim to knowing what it means to fully be a member of a Greek house. But, in the short time that I've been affiliated, I've felt and benefited from the strength and loyalty of my pledge class and house brothers. In such a short time, the house has truly become a home, and that adds special meaning and poignancy to the word Homecoming.
But, come Monday, when I'm knee deep in vomit and spilled beer (administrators and Trustees: it's not really that bad, honest), mopping up my basement and still reeling from the weekend, I guarantee that I won't be fooled into thinking that Homecoming Weekend was designed for people like me, either. No, Homecoming Weekend, as much fun as it is for everyone, is really designed for the alums. These are the people who went through four years (at least) of Dartmouth and survived. The alums who take time off from their jobs and travel all the way up to Hanover are the ones who have a love for this school and community and they're here to check in on their old home and make sure it's still doing OK. And while they might tell their bosses or their spouses that they're going to Hanover merely for the Homecoming football game and the tailgating reunions, we all know better. Not many people would get in a car or plane and travel all the way up in God's country to watch the Big Green play the kind of football it's been playing or to eat tailgate food. And, while at Dartmouth, these alums might have spent a lot of time in Collis or Baker or Kiewit, I seriously doubt that they're coming back here to check in on the libraries because of all the fond memories they have there.
For the most part, the alums are coming back to check on their homes, their Greek houses. After investing so much time and energy and money while they were members of houses, I think the alums want to make sure that their houses are still upholding the same kind of values that they benefited from while at Dartmouth. And maybe get in a game of pong or two.
When I graduate and move out into the real world, armed only with my Dartmouth education and experiences (and rapier-sharp wit and stunning good looks), I'm going to miss my house. Hopefully by then, Dartmouth will truly have become my home, and it will be a home that I look forward to returning to. For now, the alums can come back and know that the Greek houses that they came to call home are still alive and kicking. Because of some failed social experiment, I might not have that same assurance. Which is why I'm determined to make the most of my home while I'm here.
