…….is what singer/ songwriter Skylar Gray might have been shouting a few weekends ago had she been fortunate enough to claim the College of the Holy Cross as her alma mater. Instead, she’ll have to settle for a #11 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while the rest of us yearly rejoice in the persiflagacious (yes, dear editor, it’s a word- a portmanteau of loquacious and persiflage) but where was I? Ah yes, the persiflagacious procession of purple pride that is Holy Cross Homecoming!
Homecoming- or as I like to call it “Reunion without all the pressure”- is an opportunity for Holy Cross alumni, young and….err, we’ll say “young at heart” to relive the magic that made our time here on the hill so special.
For two days at the end of last month, folks got a chance to step back onto the “Field of Dreams” baseball diamond that once served as their house and will forever remain their home. They took in the sights, the sounds, the faces…and even got a peek at the new $95 million athletic center reconstruction project. While state-of-the-art in its design and majestic in its visage, it is perhaps most groan-inducingly described (at least by this author) as the “Hart Transplant.”
All puns aside, the weekend boasts a bevy of fun fare for Holy Cross friends and family. With adventures ranging from the prestigious (Alumni Association Dinner / O’Callahan Society Annual Meeting,) to the peppy (Goodtime Marching Band Concert / Football, Soccer, and Lacrosse games,) to the perhaps peculiar (“Hidden In Plain Sight” Campus Tour / Kimball Quad Takeover) Holy Cross Homecoming indeed has something for everyone!
Whether you’re a current student looking to support your teams, a recent alumus/alumna longing for one more crouton on the platter of your salad days, a “somewhat” recent graduate looking for someone to mistake you for a student and have you (if only for a fleeting moment) “feeling 22” again, or a member of the “We never should’ve turned down the Big East!” generation, eager to regale with myriad memoirs of mischief and mayhem from many months much missed, Homecoming is blank canvas patiently poised for the purple paint of your particular personal preferences.
And isn’t that what we all love so much about Holy Cross in the first place? Yes, good “young-at-heart” Holy Cross- that small, Jesuit, liberal arts institution- nay *community* – nay *FAMILY* that cooks up such vast and varied cuisine on so many different plates and yet still somehow manages to make us feel like we’re all eating at the same table. That is why we come home, and that is what makes it so hard to leave.
And while now our mass [of congregating alumni] has ended, we look forward to breaking bread with members of the Crusader family in the future. Winter Homecoming (February 24, 2017) is just around the corner. So come and join the meal.
Know your kingdom awaits, we’ve forgiven your mistakes…….and we’ll have a mug of hot chocolate waiting for you!
Thomas J. Severo ’06
