With the 2014 Homecoming Weekend upon us, it dawns on me that this will be the last time I celebrate Homecoming as a student. And with that comes the realization that in two months I will graduate, so I intend to make the most of this Homecoming.

And I suggest you do the same.

Homecoming is more than just binge drinking and watching football. It’s even more than making memories with friends.

It’s about representing your school and showing pride for the university that has been your home for maybe half of a year, maybe five years.

Underneath all the glitz and glamor of Homecoming, underneath the themes and the celebrations and even underneath the drinking is the fact that the alumni who are showing up here once stood where you stood.

Homecoming let’s you revisit your past, but more importantly helps you gaze into the future.

The alumni that have traveled here have sat on the Doudna Fine Arts Center steps. The alumni have eaten in the dining halls before. They have even slept through the same classes you have slept through.

And they seem to have turned out all right.

For myself, and probably a lot of seniors on the edge of graduation, the notion that the real world is filled with new experiences, a new life, probably terrifies you beyond belief.

But the fact of the matter is that when you walk across that stage in December or May or whenever you graduate, you will be walking into the real world—unsure, unaware and unabashed.

But the alumni that come here are proof that in the real world we will survive. They have done what we have done and gone through the fires just the same as us. And they have come out unscathed  enough to be here for this weekend of festivities.

To me that is reassuring.

That is confidence in my future endeavors.

That is a world I can look forward to.

The alumni prove that Eastern prepares us for the real world, and will help bring us home when the time comes.

So, in the coming days, look to the alumni as leaders, as examples of what you want your future to be. Without them to guide the way, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.

With this being our last Homecoming as students we stand on the brink between student and alum.

We stand on the verge of being in the real world. And in one year from now we will come back, bettered by the world we once feared, and able to guide the newer generation.

That’s what Homecoming is about.

Bob Galuski is a senior English and journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7912 or [email protected]