Last week was Homecoming – a completely American concept that I’m still trying to wrap my brains around. Dance competitions, beauty pageant competitions for Homecoming Queen and King, poster competitions and various other art-based comps consumed the campus while USC went mad over this year’s theme: “The United States of Carolina” – how original!
I’ve asked so many students, “What exactly is Homecoming?” and apart from being laughed at for looking so lost, no one was able to give me the hard-and-fast definition I wanted. Basically, it’s a weeklong event with parades and showcases ending in a home football game aimed at welcoming second, third and fourth year students back “home.”
The main event is arguably the annual showcase where the Homecoming King and Queen are elected from five male and female nominees. These students perform one talent, usually in the form of singing or dancing; they also have to get their “swagger” on by walking down the catwalk in their formal dress and answer a random question drawn from a hat that looks like it’s from the set of “Harry Potter.” You can be sure that these students will make you feel bad about yourself! Even if you’re the captain of a sports team and an active member of the debating society at university, these students have done far more by contributing significantly to both their college and communities. The winners were both fourth year students belonging to fraternities and sororities (surprise, surprise!).
It seemed to be just a popularity contest at first, with a “pick the pretty Marilyn Monroe girl – she’ll look good in the parade” attitude. However, these students actually helped highlight the array of astonishing achievements that we all can do. By putting the Homecoming candidates in the harsh spotlight on the stage, their accomplishments could help encourage other students to get more involved with extracurricular activities and explore the vast world that waits just outside the state border.
But Homecoming wasn’t rainbows and flowers for everyone; for some students at USC, the school spirit and extracurricular fun clearly got too much after Saturday’s Homecoming win. Home before midnight, my flat-mate struggled to support her drunken friend away from the parties and into bed. Naturally, I helped play “Mom” and spent the early hours of the morning holding back the hair for the poor girl who passed out on our bathroom floor! She got to know our toilet very well indeed… I knew all those years of lifeguard training would come in handy one day! Putting a random in the recovery position to avoid choking sick wasn’t exactly how I planned to spend my Saturday night, but it was an experience I’m sure all of us students have been through.
Oh, student life! It seems that I cannot escape drunken foolery even on the other side of the pond!