Homecoming has been one of the biggest events of the year in high school and college for decades. Some activities associated with this event are the homecoming dance (where the king and queen are crowned), lots of parties and of course the homecoming game itself. For me, this was my biggest nightmare. There were always so many people and so much going on; it was a sensory overload for my introverted self. This was an experience I could never avoid, so over the years I have found a way to participate in a way that I was comfortable with.
In 2017, I became VP of Fellowship for my Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Phoenix College. I wanted us to participate in the homecoming parade. So, I signed us up and we got started. At first, our goal was to make a horse and have our bear ride it since Phoenix College’s mascot is the Bears. But the more we worked on it the more it turned out looking like a bull. It turns out that the rival team we were playing were the bulls, so we decided to run with that idea. This was one of the most interesting homecoming experiences I had, but it does get better. That same year I involved us in the Minute to Win It games during homecoming week and we were in charge of the Oreo game. This game was entertaining. You place an Oreo on your forehead, and you have one minute to get the Oreo from your head to your mouth without any hands. Honestly, I laughed more than I facilitated. Of course, we had to have a booth at the homecoming game. So, we had the Oreo game again, and some students came and played it. This was honestly one of the best experiences I had in community college.
In 2018, I participated in homecoming again. This time we had a banner competition. At this time, I had my own club and we did photography, graphic design, video production and promotion for the clubs on campus. It made sense to us to use our graphic design skills on our banner. This was quite the experience. We had to piece it together like a puzzle, but it was great that I had some homecoming pictures from the previous year that we could use. The banner turned out great and we got a participation certificate for it.
Each of these years, I attended the homecoming game and the small party before the game. I didn’t really understand fully what was going on with the game, but I did have a great time with my friends. Sometimes it takes stepping out of my comfort zone to be comfortable in a social situation for an introvert like myself. I wouldn’t trade those two experiences for the world. In fact, I would do it all over again if I were given the chance.