Homecoming memories of past and present

Students and alumni recount their stories of tri-coloured weekends

Image by: Emma Sewell

Ramolen Laraun, Fine Arts ‘18

I wanted to be involved with the events because I used to do photography for my high school yearbook and I really enjoyed it. So, I volunteered and it was just a humbling experience.

As a first year, you’re kind of intimidated by upper years, but then you meet these alumni who came to Queen’s 50 years ago and they’re really easy to approach. In fact, they’re the ones who approach you.

They want to get to know you. I think they want to figure out if Queen’s is still “the same” or if Stages is still frequented. There’s definitely a sense of genuine curiosity/concern to see if Queen’s is still as great as it was — and it is. They light up when you mention a place that they used to go to.

They would trade stories — I remember a woman told me that her whole family came to Queen’s, her parents, her children and now her grandchildren.

I’m the first in my family to go to Queen’s, I wasn’t aware of this “school pride” that is common to a lot of current and past Queen’s students. Now all I want is a kid of mine dying themselves purple with a toilet seat around their neck.

Kathleen Lew, ArtSci ‘17

I was at ReUnion street festival and something went wrong with my contacts. I was completely blind, and my friends were too drunk to take me home so I called Walkhome. I was afraid of them calling QFA, so I didn’t tell them I couldn’t see, I just pretended to be really drunk.

They tried to get me to direct them to my house, so I kept asking what intersection we were at and trying to count the blocks. I got home fine without them ever finding out I had basically zero vision.

Allison Mitchell, ArtSci ‘90

My three housemates and I were living at University Ave. and William Street.

We had retired for the evening and at around 2 a.m. were awoken by male voices in our house. I sat up in bed, still a bit groggy, when my bedroom door was opened.

Four guys in their mid-twenties peeked in and said, “Yeah it looks just the same!”

I was a bit confused and the visitors introduced themselves as alumni who had returned for Homecoming. They had lived in the house during their time at Queens.

We were all woken up and ended up chatting down in the living room. We got talking about the house and how much we loved the tri-colour-painted archway in the living room and the alumni told us that they were the ones that painted it!

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