Like the swallows returning to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, my loyal sons and daughters are flying back to Notre Dame, their mother.  Of course, the students aren’t birds, they don’t have feathers, and can’t really fly.  So maybe that was a bad simile.

Like salmon swimming against the current to return home, my loyal sons and daughters are coming back to the place of their spiritual and educational birth.  Wait…NO NO NO – the salmon do that to spawn.  There is absolutely no spawning at Notre Dame.

I’ll try again.  Like the noble Monarch Butterfly that travels in the thousands to reach its desired destination, so too…unfortunately, a bunch of those butterflies end up plastered against the windshields of big trucks.  Ditch this one, too.

Moving on to a different topic, just like an annual cycle of life in nature, new freshmen come to fill-out our herd, our pack, our pride, in the place of the old ones who have gone.  These freshmen are like snowflakes – each one is different, unique, complicated, and  beautiful.  That’s what I meant by snowflakes there; I did not mean to imply that the freshmen are flaky.  This is getting worse.

Welcome to my new loyal sons and daughters; welcome back to the other three-quarters of my loyal sons and daughters.  As ever, you will all find Our Lady’s University as nurturing as a sow with her piglets.  No.  As nurturing as a pelican with her brood…whose mouths she vomits into for sustenance.  Not that either.  Just trust me when I tell you that Alma Mater in Latin means nurturing mother…and golden is they fame, and our hearts forever praise thee Notre Dame (why can’t I write like that?)

Whether you have four years to go here, or are down to your last two semesters, since you are now home at Notre Dame du Lac, may you always be as victorious as the French – Oh, Hell Golly!  I quit.

Just have a good year.  I’m always around if you need me.  And remember: NO spawning.

EFS CSC

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