Homecoming is easily the best time of the year. It’s where everyone is coming home to celebrate, have fun and be reminded of memories created on “the hill.”
But what is homecoming like when you are already home?
Born and raised in Quincy, which is at most 30 minutes west of Tallahassee, you can say that I am proud to be a part of the 850 area code club.
Being from the area, Florida A&M University’s homecoming is something that I experienced early in life. From being in the parade to having family who pick up work as vendors selling food on Perry Street, I feel like I have always been involved in homecomings at Florida A&M some type of way.
Now that I have aged and I am a student at my illustrious HBCU, homecoming as a local has never peaked as much as it has being a student. Before I attended FAMU, I remember just waking up around five in the morning to get to the parade to either get a good seat or a good park, going to the game and that would be the end of homecoming for me.
As a student, I have taken homecoming more seriously. This year, I started shopping for homecoming at the beginning of September. I was not playing. I knew which events I was going to attend and which ones wouldn’t even cross my mind on the day of.
Knowing what to wear or what events I was going to were important for me this year because now that I stay off campus, time and traffic would be an issue. But being a local, it was without question less complicated for me to get around during homecoming. I have years of experience finding the cheap parks around the local neighborhoods with little walking distances to my destinations.
While being a local does have its pros during homecoming, it also has its cons. Starting with the fact that every time something goes wrong, fingers are pointed at us for the cause of it.
All of us want to have fun and enjoy the festivities without being in harm’s way. We realize that we share the capital city. One bad apple shouldn’t spoil the entire barrel.
So, while homecoming is old hat for me, homecoming is also special now that I’m a Rattler.