On Homecoming: A Return to Middle Georgia

This Saturday, we kick off two weeks of festivities for our Second Annual University Homecoming. We will continue longstanding traditions like our International Festival as we celebrate with students, alumni, family, and friends across the region.

Events next week range from an Alumni Oyster Roast in Macon to a Concert on the Green in Dublin to an Alumni Evening over Craft Brews in Warner Robins. The following week we look forward to our Homecoming Pep Rally, Club Football Game, and Alumni House Grand Opening in Cochran, culminating with the Heart of Georgia Airshow in Eastman on Saturday, November 5.

Webster’s dictionary defines homecoming as both “an annual celebration for people who attended a college or university” and “the act of returning to your home or a place that is like your home.” Our hope is that for the thousands of individuals who have graced the halls of Middle Georgia State or one of our predecessor institutions—and for our current students—this place will always be like your home.

Gathering each year to celebrate both our history and our growth allows us to reflect on how far we—as a people, a region, and an institution—have come. I encourage you to join us over the next two weeks and to invite family and friends with ties to our home to return to a place that helped shape them.

Having recently visited my own alma mater, University of Oxford in England, I can attest to the value of returning home. Or, as Irish novelist George Moore put it, “We travel the world over in search of what we need, and return home to find it.”

College days are sometimes described as the “best days of your life.”  I like to believe that college days may be that, but other experiences throughout life may equally bring fulfilment and joy.  What we can say is that college leaves us changed for the rest of our lives for the better, and that Homecoming is a celebration of a community of learners across the years and ages, connecting us with students who share in the vision and mission of a University.

With our long traditions and exciting future, MGA is truly an institution that provides a home across the miles and years and a handshake between different generations of learners.  That is what we are celebrating this coming two weeks, and more particularly celebrating the difference in the world and the example of greatness that our Alumni bequeath to us.