Mercer is a Special Place: Mercer Homecoming 2013
I would have never imagined Mercer would be my home.
As a high school sophomore I was looking at Mount Holyoke and Columbia, places like that, then my father issued the edict: ” no schools north of the Mason-Dixon line” and that was that.
I wanted so much to get out of Macon, I felt stifled by how long my family had been here and the strictness of my so-oh-so-unfair parents. Then Sarah Mosley, whose father works for Mercer and who would later become by Alpha Delta Pi sister, told me to visit Mercer- adding that I could always live on campus.
I wouldn’t be until June after graduation that I had enough scholarships to cover Mercer, even enough that it was cheaper than when I attended a private high school.
After Freshman year my poor grades and first love led me out of Mercer and Macon to Georgia Southern. Miserable in Statesboro and having broken up with the boyfriend I headed to Athens where I thought University of Georgia called me. As much as I loved Athens, Macon and Mercer would call me back home to round out my “Tour of Georgia”. Even then I never expected I would have to return as a 30 year old to graduate.
Life has a funny way of working out better than we planned. I doubt I would be as grateful to be at Mercer had it worked out according to plan. And I doubt I would have learned that I love photography unless I had decided to apply to work with the Cluster.
Today is Mercer’s Homecoming, complete with a girl’s softball game, men’s basketball and the closing football game. Who would have thought when I was a freshman in 2001 that we would have a football team that is on the brink of winning, should we win today, all of its home football game to have the best start of all the new football programs this year?
And the turn out and atmosphere is amazing. The amount of people tailgating on campus, the people who shop at the boutiques for orange and black- I even had the owner of Southern Flair in Warner Robins tell me that she is selling out of her orange and black items. Mercer is truly uniting the Middle Georgia area through football, and I could not be prouder.
To top that off, we have a university with 12 colleges and schools- ranked first by ” US News and World Report as the best value among comprehensive universities in the southern United States” (Wikipedia, Mercer University).
Am I proud to be a Bear? Damn straight I am.
Mercer University will remain in my heart for life, I hope my kids will be the fourth generation of my family to attend Mercer in some form.
This is a truly special place- meanwhile football is about to kickoff and I’m about to head down to the sidelines. Feel free to check out my Tweets on the game in between taking photos at @MakeItWorkMolly.
Love to all yall
Molly
