I’ve never been deemed a sporty girl. I’ve always been academically and musically inclined. My high school didn’t have a football team, so I never got the chance to participate in the excitement of Homecoming Games and all that jazz. 

Since college runs on a semester schedule, we have midterms in the middle of the semester rather than in December, like in high school. But what I love about college is that midterms happen the exact same week Homecoming is. It’s really great. Really great.

I just love when I’m in the middle of a very excruciatingly hard sociology exam, and then out of nowhere screams the loud voice from whatever that new popular rap song is, right outside my classroom window. I forget his name, but that’s okay because I’m also slowly forgetting all the information I studied for this test. Instead my mind is now overflowing with lyrics from a song I don’t even know by an artist I keep forgetting. 

I also really love it when I’m trying to get over to McClimans Hall to take my psychology exam, and there’s a ginormous amount of students in the Student Union War Memorial Park trying to get free gumbo, free shirts and ride on that beautiful mechanical bull. People are giving me dirty looks as I push my way through because they think I’m trying to skip the line, but no, I’m just trying to get to my psychology exam. All this food smells so great and look, there’s cake. Yes, I love when that happens.

If you haven’t realized by now, I was being painfully sarcastic. Painfully because everyone loves Homecoming Week and it sucks that we have midterms also. Sarcastic because, well, it’s the truth. I do not appreciate the loud events happening right outside the library when I’m trying to study, or my dorm room when I’m trying to sleep or my classroom when I’m trying to take a test. I understand that Homecoming is a tradition and it’s a time for you to express your school spirit and pride and get lots and lots of free food and shirts and stuffed animals, but my grades are way more important than that.

After Homecoming Week ends, we still have degrees we’re trying to work towards. We still have jobs we are striving to get. We still have goals that we are trying to reach, and I know that Homecoming Week may seem like a very minute obstacle when it comes to the bigger picture, but that’s just it. We have to treat those smaller things like it is messing up our bigger picture. That one bad grade on your midterm will affect you negatively in some way, shape or form. 

I’m not saying that we should not have Homecoming Week at all. That’s definitely not what I’m saying. I do believe Homecoming Week is a great tradition that gives a chance to relax and have fun leading up to the big game. But how can we relax and have fun when we’re studying all day, every day and taking tests all day, every day of Homecoming Week. 

I’m just suggesting that Homecoming be moved back a week. That way we can all stress and cry and scream and shout together during midterm week, but afterwards we can reward ourselves with fun activities and games and free gumbo and campfires and little stuffed Roomies.