Homecoming and Heroes

You’ll have to excuse me during this week’s blog for slightly deviating from my usual messages of motivation and insight gained from an experience.  You see this week is homecoming week at Michigan State University (MSU) which is my beloved alma mater.  The theme for homecoming this year is creating Spartan heroes which caused me to have some reflection on who are the heroes in my life.  The resounding automatic answer was first and foremost my parents.  So I figured why not take the time to write this week about just a few great memories of my most prominent heroes (Mom and Dad) and how through our time together as a family MSU became so special in my life.  In the spirit of the “hero homecoming” theme, and this week’s blog, I would encourage you to take some time to reflect on the heroes in your life, and take a moment to enjoy some reminiscent conversations with them.

In order to know where my affiliation with MSU starts you can literally go back to the day I was born.  When my parents brought me home from the hospital, it was to a cozy 2 bedroom apartment where they lived in University Housing known as Spartan Village.  That means when I was learning my address as a small child, my parents were helping me to learn how to spell and write Spartan.  It was a great neighborhood where the best sledding hill was tucked away just behind the Spartan Village School (now the community center).  Dad and I would go out there bundled up head to toe, and return with cold noses to mom’s tomato soup and hot chocolate to thaw out.  My mom helped me earn a bike through selling M&Ms for a school fundraiser, and I learned how to ride that bike on the sidewalks of Spartan Village with my dad’s help.  Even on laundry day I would kick around the soccer ball and toss a football with my parents in the grassy area by the Laundromat.

As you can imagine, football game days were very special to me as well, but not just because of the game.  While my dad was getting his PhD at MSU, he formed a close friendship with a professor named Dr. Walter Adams.  I remember frequent fall Saturdays as a child we would fight the traffic through the streets of East Lansing, some days we went to a game but a majority were to watch the band warm up and march to the stadium (I’ve included a link of this tradition below).  Dr. Adams with his signature cigar, and green and white feather tucked firmly in his hat, used to welcome my parents and I to stand with him and chat.  I would do my best with my short childish arms to help him hold the Big Ten flags the band used, while members of the band stretched and warmed up.  To this day, watching the band march to the stadium (from what is now named Adams Field, in memory of Dr. Adams), and hearing them play the fight song still reminds me of those great fall Saturdays. 

We went to University United Methodist Church on Harrison Road and afterwards through much of my prompting my parents would drive me past the university farms to see the farm animals.  Having attended many Small Animal Days in spring on campus, the cows and horses were my favorite to see grazing in the fields.  Some Sundays after the drive we would take some bread down to the banks of the Red Cedar by Wells Hall to feed the ducks.  On the way, my dad would help me collect acorns for the squirrels.  As an adult I now know the squirrels were abundant enough on campus that what few acorns I collected weren’t helping much, but he helped me do it anyway and that makes it special to me.

When I received my acceptance letters to attend MSU for undergrad and then later graduate school, I remember how happy I was to share those moments with my parents.  Through all my experiences as a child, and the academic programs I wanted to go into, MSU was always my primary choice.  When I was hired to work on campus as a Resident Director in Emmons Hall immediately out of graduate school, it was as if everything had come full circle.  I was born in University Housing, and then I had my first full time job working in Residence Life managing a residence hall on MSU’s campus.  It was unique how it worked out for me, but simply it solidified my love and appreciation for the campus.

As you can probably imagine I could easily fill a book with all of the experiences I’ve had at MSU.  I’ve often joked with friends that I have a memory for almost every part of campus from celebrating a basketball national championship, to Dairy Store Ice Cream, to watching the Breslin Center being built, and then living on 6 East in Holmes Hall.  But in the spirit of homecoming I just wanted to share a few fond memories with you here.  It was fun to go down memory lane and jot down notes deciding on what experiences I would include in this post.  I’m sure my parents and I will have some good laughs remembering what I’ve written here as well as the moments that didn’t make the cut.  It was easy and fun to do as I reflected on my parents, my most influential heroes.  I’d encourage you to take the time to think of some of your most favorite moments with one or more of your heroes and take the time to make a phone call, or set up a lunch this week to share and chat with them.  It’s a great feel good moment, and you never know what happiness you might bring to yourself, as well as them.  Spread happiness every day friends.

 

 

Here's the link to the video of the MSU Marching Band that I referred to earlier in the post.  You can fast forward to the 2:36 mark to avoid a slow intro.  It isn't my video, but one I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E1neD_otNs