Forgive me as I get a little nostalgic...
On Tuesday, I fly back to South Bend from the West Coast to go back to Notre Dame.
Back home.
It's not all that often that you get an opportunity, as an aging alum, to go back to your alma mater for a 5-day stay. It's certainly not often that you get to do so with a big group of super fans to get coached by the staff, mingle with past greats, and play a game in the Stadium.
But all of the football stuff aside (and dont get me wrong all of that is going to be AWESOME), I am really, really looking forward to just being back. Game weekends are great, but they're also a blur. Insanely busy, super short, and drunken. It's a flash of awesomeness, and it's over. I typically barely have time to get around to see 1/3rd of campus on a regular game weekend. It's great, but it's not enough time to really reconnect with the place. This coming week I'll have time to stroll down to the Grotto. Visit the Basilica. Walk the Quads, and the Lake. Light a candle at the Grotto - alone.
Not that life out here in LA LA Land is all bad. It's great. Sunshine and movie stars and non-stop traffic. It's fantastic and weird. But it's also a town of wheelers and dealers. A town of people obsessed with 'getting theirs'. And after a while, you start to crave that ND environment, where people are about 'GIVING theirs'. Not that ND is all puppies and rainbows - but just walking around Notre Dame, you get that feeling. Students studying so they can help themselves, others, the world. Priests, who have given up so much, strolling the Quads. My main man Touchdown Jesus with his arms raised high - the guy that literally gave up everything.
You see, Notre Dame has this feeling. I don't know what to call it. I just know it's special, and that I crave it when I've been gone for too long. I guess something similar might hit me every once in a while out here in my 'home home' of California. Maybe at an amazing sunset or at the end of a hike up a peak under a waterfall. I don't know what it is: nature? awe? comfort? inspiration? God? Who knows, but what I do know is that that feeling is at Notre Dame. All the time.
And I am very much looking forward to reconnecting with the campus, and that feeling, for almost a week. I remember what it was like at the beginning of freshman year when it was all new - our time at ND was stretching out endlessly before us. That was before we knew how great it was, and would be, and how damn quickly it would come to an end and slip through fingers desperately trying to cling to it, and just make it last - a - little - bit - longer. I kind of feel like that now, and I don't board the plane for another 3 days. It's going to be great. But it will never be enough.
By TubaPete May 27, 2011 - 8:30 am
Man, you should be the main spokesman for the Alumni Reunion Committee. I’ve been getting solicitations all spring to go to my 40th year reunion and nothing touched me like your posting. I feel everything you said. There IS something special about ND
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By OderName May 27, 2011 - 8:42 am
Very, very well said. Gotta wipe the tears from my eyes.
It’s like no other place I’ve ever been. I was very, very lucky to spend 5 of the best years of my life there.
If you don’t know Notre Dame, no explanation would suffice. If you do know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary.
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By Erik '04 May 27, 2011 - 10:43 am
Excuse me while I replace my keyboard…the tears seem to have shorted it out. Very well said, Biscuit. I hope the rest of your fantasy camp updates are as poignant as this one.
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By Joe Hession May 27, 2011 - 11:40 am
Very well said, Biscuit. Just BEING there puts you in a special frame of mind. I look forward to meeting you next week and having an awesome game on Friday! As a fifth-year senior at this camp I offer you one solid guarantee…..you’ll cherish this week for the rest of your life. Go Irish!!!
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By ShamRockNRoll May 27, 2011 - 12:32 pm
Great post, Biscuit. I only graduated a year ago and experience that same longing to get back and take it all in once more.
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By Mayhem May 27, 2011 - 12:38 pm
Some people call us superfans, some wonder why we would want to pay the money we do to beat our bodies up….You hit it on the head. It’s not about football, or meeting cool people….It’s about the place. For me it’s about giving back just a bit to a place that has given me so much….And I’m not even Alumni. Joe said it best, it will be a week you will never forget. Welcome to the Family, Biscuit.
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By Steve Filbert May 27, 2011 - 1:27 pm
I am not an alumni but yet I am treated as one. My wife worked at Notre Dame for a truly special priest that tonight we are going to help him celebrate 50 years of being a priest. That is the special beauty of Notre Dame. You adopt them and they adopt you. We have been blessed to attend so many events over the years and to meet so many wonderful people. It is a special place that gets into your soul if you will. There is the good the bad and the ugly but there is also the real beauty of our Mother’s University. No matter how many times I walk the campus or attend a sporting event, it is special. That fact never changes after all these years. Attending the Fantasy Camp was and is a dream come true. This will be my third year and I await for it like a kid waiting for Santa Claus. Those that don’t know the spirit of Notre Dame don’t understand the hours I spend in the gym preparing for camp. But one of the things I have learned over the years, especially from this place of giving, is that what you give from the heart gets returned a hundred fold.
God bless America and Go Irish!!
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By The Biscuit May 27, 2011 - 3:02 pm
“hours in the gym”. hmmm, i might be a bit behind.
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By One4TheGipper May 27, 2011 - 11:25 pm
This article is a major reason my wife and I would love to send our son (due in Sept) to Notre Dame. Step one…somehow arrange the act of God that will allow him to be baptized there. Any advice on the best way to make that happen would be greatly appreciated!
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By daybreakboys May 29, 2011 - 8:26 am
How to make a baptism at ND happen? How do you feel about:
#1. Bribery.
#2. Buying the University a new multi-million dollar building.
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By KA May 31, 2011 - 3:42 pm
A few words to the wise:
1) Be ready to compete hungover
2) Get ready to run.
You are one of the few young bodies there and you will immediately become a barter chip for the veterans.
Last thing — Bring a second bag to check, as you’ll be coming home with some serious swag…
Look forward to the reports.
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