We remember hanging on The Yard or walking around The Quad like it was yesterday. We ran for Miss Sophomore and pledged the same year. Our Probate show was in the back-of-the-campus at the Spring picnic. Registration may have taken weeks (sometimes ½ the semester) but once we were ‘in-school’, we ‘dressed’ for class and The Union was cool but, the scene was in front of the College of Business or Engineering building.

 

Now, if we’re lucky, once or twice a year we get to see our ‘Day-Ones’, the ‘real ones’ – the ones we walked from the dorm to ‘cafe’ with every day or, split a 3-piece ‘wings-on-wheat’ with at least once a week. The ones we Road-Tripped with, Rolled-out with or Rolled-up with. We get to see them at Homecoming or at The Classic – you know, those weekends when we kick it or just kick back. The weekends when it all comes back. The memories. The laughs. The lies. Sharing ‘that ol spirit’ connects us – whether we happened to be on the same campus or not. We’re familiar and better than that, we’re family. From Freshman Seminar 101 to graduation…it’s in us. Our HBCU pride. Some people just wouldn’t understand.

 

Our children hear about it and, if we raised them right, they’ve seen it firsthand. Some of our children are experiencing it right now so they are continuing that same tradition. Our children know their aunties and uncles from here - this is the village. THIS is ‘fam’.