"Hoco is a marathon, not a sprint."

Tips from a fourth year on surviving homecoming

As a fourth-year student, I cannot express the amount of times I’ve heard one particular quote from upperclassmen, especially during my first year. Those who have celebrated multiple homecomings will understand how true this quote is. Contrarily, if you’re a frosh and are preparing to celebrate your first homecoming, be prepared to hear this over and over again.

For those that are of age and are planning on “cracking a cold one with the boys” to celebrate homecoming, it’s important to make sure that your safety and overall comfort is your number one priority (with fun trailing only slightly behind). It is easy to adopt the mentality that you need to black out or back out on the morning of homecoming, but this is entirely false. If you would like to make it out of homecoming alive and well, then the following tips may be useful.

Pace yourself

Pacing yourself is key to having a successful and enjoyable homecoming experience. At the risk of sounding like the mom of the group, remember you don’t have to keep up with your friends by going drink for drink. Homecoming can be an extremely long day, especially if you’re planning to start the festivities before noon like the majority of the StFX population typically does. You should keep in mind that you have the entire day to celebrate and go crazy, so don’t try to squeeze it in within the first few hours of waking up. Furthermore, everyone has a different tolerance level for alcohol. Just because your friends can handle a certain amount of liquor does not mean that you can or should drink the same amount.

Rest up

Another important tip is to make sure you get a good night’s sleep on the night before the big day. Many people compare the night before homecoming to Christmas Eve due to the temporary insomnia they experience as a result of high levels of excitement. However, it’s important to push through this feeling and get a full 8 hours or more. You’ll be grateful for this when it’s mid-afternoon and you don’t feel the need to take a power nap. That being said, if you absolutely must take a power-nap, make sure that you don’t sleep for too long. This could result in waking up hungover, which would be sure to ruin your entire day.

Eat well, perform well

Aside from looking at homecoming as a marathon and not a sprint, we can also look to runners for inspiration on how to fuel our big day. For example, something that runners often do that we can use in preparation for homecoming is carbo-loading. It is essential to make sure that you are eating regular and substantial meals throughout the day. Speaking from experience, there’s nothing worse than not eating enough, blacking out drunk at 2pm, passing out, and waking up hungover before dinner. Learn from my mistakes and make sure that you eat a solid breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Homecoming is a strange phenomenon. Like most StFX related things, it is something that is inexplicable to those who haven’t experienced it themselves. StFX is known for the way the students and alumni here brim with pride every day of the year. This feeling of pride is definitely intensified on homecoming. It’s a day when we all come together to celebrate how incredible our school is and how lucky we all are to share the amazing memories we’ve made here. So have fun Xaverians, but more importantly: BE SAFE.

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