Commencement, Homecoming, Celebrations, and Customs

A while back, the good brother at HBCU Digest asked on Twitter whether homecoming or commencement should be the bigger deal at our schools. Without any hesitation, I stated that homecoming should be the bigger celebration.

The reason has very little to do with the fact that I have attended the best homecoming in America (I don’t care what you DC people say: spending outrageous cash to listen to up-north music is not my idea of a great HC) for seventeen consecutive years. It’s purely based on the other side.

Commencement should never be a big deal at an HBCU (or any other school, for that matter) because every student should expect to graduate. That’s why you go to college. Finding yourself…or someone else…or continuing a legacy or whatever else? Secondary. You go to school to walk out with the sheepskin. That’s all. That’s it.

If it’s the goal, then why should it be celebrated so? It does not require, nor should it entail, the pomp and circumstance that the experience often seems to bring – especially at HBCUs. I understand that some of us are the first in our families to graduate. I understand that some of us have more difficult roads than others. I understand that obstacles – be they societal, financial, familial, or otherwise – can make our commencement experiences more sentimental.

That said, our culture has this widespread problem of wanting to celebrate and receive credit for doing things we’re supposed to do. Women say they make their own money. Men say they take care of their children. It’s funny how we’re the main ones to clown the idea of participation trophies in sports, but we expect to get them in life. You’re supposed to make your own money, you’re supposed to take care of your children, you’re supposed to stay out of jail, and you’re supposed to walk across that stage if you decide to go to college.

The above paragraph explains how I don’t see the cause celebre in doing something that you set out to do. Want to celebrate? Go to homecoming.

Reminisce on the good times you had with your friends. Watch your football team win…hopefully. Enjoy the parade. Support your school financially, revel in all that the homecoming experience has to offer: but when commencement time arrives, take your diploma – well, the case – and walk on.

You’re just picking up what you came for.