Is Homecoming the celebration of football or is football the celebration of Homecoming? It’s one of those age old questions that really needs no answer because during Homecoming season it’s a little bit of everything.

Homecoming is more than an event, it’s feelings like:

ANTICIPATION: It’s the wonderings of when you will see your old “stomping crew” and “road dawgs” and how you will react when you lock eyes. It’s the unspoken understanding that you and your homegirls (or 1st Cousins–Heeey Rasheedah and Kasib!) will have about “so and so.”

EXPECTATION: It’s the certainty that you will always see the people that make Homecoming “worth it” and special each and every time. Equally it is the confidence of expecting a football victory on your home field. CONGRATULATIONS to my VSU Trojans and our multiple-overtime, game-winning VICTORY over Bowie State University! Finally it’s that feeling of being in awe when you see the ways in which alumni monies have been used to improve our beloved “Land of Troy.”

INSPIRATION: It’s seeing the “seasoned” alumni decked out in Orange and Blue and still just as full of the Trojan Pride as they were 50 or more years ago. It’s also seeing all of the old time “Trojan Couples” holding hands, dressed alike, and knowing that they met and fell in love while in the process of getting a Virginia State education. ❤

ELATION: It’s feeling satisfied and grateful that you’ve been able to live to see another Homecoming, and that you’re still recognizable or at least somewhat (lol) to the eyes you capture; and, knowing those eyes understand that “life happens” in between Homecomings.

DISPENSATION: It’s the feeling of knowing there’s a Divine order to life and that the Creator is in charge of it. It’s also that feeling of looking around to your left and right and reflecting on all of the silly things you did “on the Yard” and the people you did them with. Lastly, it’s that brief feeling of melancholy that envelops you as you embrace the fact that all of your friends didn’t “make it”; but, that sadness is soon overcome by happier moments and memories. It’s the feeling of respect you share with thousands more because you’re back on the consecrated land that raised you into the citizens you are now as you navigate the bigger world you were shielded from by your campus “high above the Appomattox on its lofty hill.”

Through this barrage of emotions, you finally reach that place of EXHALATIONthat lets you breathe easier knowing that outfit you fretted over was not worth all of the fuss, the once “man of your dreams” is perfectly fine as the object of someone else’s desire–and thankfully so! The routines you couldn’t remember are permanently tattooed in your soul and you find that out when it’s time to perform–but even more you realize the stepping, chanting, tailgating, cheering, smiling, eating, dancing, talking, blushing, sharing, reflecting, telling, asking, looking, walking, shopping, marching, picture snapping, plotting, kissing…hugging are all of the reasons for the feeling of CELEBRATION!