Hello October. You might be the end of any hope I had for warm weather and the beach, but you welcome my new Frye boots and cute trench coat – so I guess you’re okay. I have to admit though… There is something that makes October more than just “okay” for us twenty somethings/recent grads: Alumni Weekend. (Like we needed an excuse to get together…) Okay, so we maybe we don’t NEED an excuse to see old friends (and frenemies), but for some reason these places we go every day (I think they’re called “jobs”) NEED an excuse for why we have to see our college friends who don’t live near us.
Thanks to colleges across the country, there is “alumni weekend.” This special weekend usually takes place in October, which is the perfect time for it. It’s not the very start of the school year, but the weather hasn’t gone to sh*t yet… and it’s not the end of the school year when the seniors want nothing to do with depressed old people who will tell them how miserable they will be come June (aka me and you).
After graduating college, you move back home or to a new place where you have (or hope to get) a job. For probably just about all of us, the majority of our college friends (if any) will not be where “home” is (or wherever we move). This is very different from high school, where you see friends when you head home for the holidays or because you now live there again. After college, there is no holiday that you will be going back to college for… There’s really no reason for you to go back there ever. And do you know how hard it is to pick a weekend and a place for you and all your college friends to get together? That involves traveling for everyone expect the person you’re traveling to… and just about everyone wants to be the person who doesn’t have to go anywhere. Especially when you and your friends live on different coasts.
This is why you need to thank the creator of “alumni weekend.” If it wasn’t for them, you probably would never see aquaintences, frenemies, randoms, creepers, the people you saw at the gym but never talked to, etc ever again. No one lives at your college anymore (unless it’s in a city, and if so, this post probably means nothing to you), so you don’t have to worry about anyone getting off easy because you all have to travel there. AND the best part: you get to pretend you’re still in college. You can go to all the bars you lived at every weekend (and week night) again. Even though you’ll see how young the college students look now, you will think you’re young too when you see older blacked out alumni at the bars (remember: you are a RECENT alumni – parent alumnis go to this weekend too…). You get to go to the restaurants and the extremely good bagel place that cured your hangovers (okaay maybe that’s just for Ithacans – CTB). Basically, you’re not at work. You’re not home. You’re with your friends and all those familiar faces you once partied with, worked out with, and sat in classes with.
Unfortunately, there may be a reason you can’t attend your school’s alumni weekend one year. But whatever the reason, if you can’t go one year – DON’T WORRY. Alumni weekend happens every year, so unlike your high school’s 5th year reunion (which is coming up for me), there’s always next year!
Long live alumni weekend. Have fun if you are heading to yours this month!
