Open Letter to JMU Students Part II
Note: This is adapted from a similar post a couple years ago.
Dear JMU Students,
We’re not mad about low student attendance. And we’re not preaching that football is everything. Most weeks, we get it – the Dukes haven’t been good in a few years, none of you were in school for the last home playoff game, the wifi is non-existent in BFS and you can’t even get a tweet out and there’s free beer literally everywhere else in your corner of the ‘Burg. So we’re not gonna sell you on the importance of football on why you should stay late this weekend and come back early the next in the event of a home playoff game. We’re gonna sell you simply on the crappiness of being back home and the absolute beauty of having extra weekends at JMU – only the kind of rare weekends where you have no set plans and ZERO responsibilities. Face it, even the nerdiest among us isn’t actually doing work of Thanksgiving Break.
As for the football, just get your tickets and do it. The dorms are staying open and most of you don’t live there anyhow. And the truth is, as much as we love football, this isn’t even about football. It’s about sucking every ounce of marrow out of one of life’s juiciest bones – your time as an enrolled student at JMU. In fact, you should stay every break you get the chance. We’re not saying don’t show up at Mom’s for actual Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas break, but we are saying that Fall Break, Easter weekend, and any other random weekend you might be considering going “home” for some R&R or just to do your laundry and eat tons of food, is a bad idea and you’ll have more fun at your real and glorious new home now.
There are few things better in life, and certainly none better from ages 18-23, than a weekend in the ‘Burg that is 100% free of responsibility. No classes, no homework, not even any major parties to host, attend, or plan for. Just a weekend with your friends who have the shared spontaneity and passion for good times to seize a golden opportunity when it’s presented.
Oh, we hear your excuses and they are pure bullshit. What, you’ve been texting all semester with your high school friends and really just can’t wait to catch up with them about that reallly serious drama in their life. Trust us, they aren’t going anywhere. If they’re currently away at other schools, they’ll understand what your time at JMU means to you, though maybe not as much as a fellow Duke would because wherever they are just doesn’t compare (especially if they’re in Blacksburg or Charlottesville or Fairfax). If they are currently at NOVA, Tidewater, or John Tyler, no need to worry, they’ll still be in your hometown whenever you get there.
But your parents are just really expecting you and looking forward to seeing you and they won’t understand. Grow up. Tell them to grow up too. Neither you nor your parents may realize it, and you may not say it to each other over the phone, but the truth is you’ve both probably adjusted to life without each other more than you know. You really want to go home and drag this break out to 10 or 11 or 12 days with the nagging and the it’s-not-a-curfew-but-we’ll-guilt-you-about-it-anyhow. What will you really be doing that’s so wonderful. Fattening up eating from a full pantry, stressing over exams but not actually studying, and spending half the day Snapchatting with what will suddenly occur to you are your closer, and cooler, JMU friends.
But I’m from out of state or somewhere like Northumberland County and it’s tough to find a ride. Just shut up. Somehow we got by with nothing but a Ride-Board in Taylor Down Under. You all are way more savvy than we ever were about networking, or so I’m told, so pm someone or put it on FB to put you in touch with someone who’s from somewhere near where you are and isn’t heading home till Sunday and figure it out.
As for all that great stuff you’ll do back in your hometown. If you’re an underclassman without access to a lenient bar or a great id, you’ll go to lame house parties at some kid from the class behind you’s house with your high school crew where it will start to sink in you’re now the old guys and you have about 5x more chance of getting busted than you would in Harrisonburg at a party that you’ll realize the minute you walk in the door isn’t worth half the risk you’d be willing take with the door guy at Jack Brown’s.
If you’re an upperclassman, and of age, you’ll go to some stupid suburban bar where the dumbass kids you went to high school with are now working and they’ll mock the JMU game despite the fact it’s on tv and they are missing the point that taking two classes at New River doesn’t give you a license to be a diehard Tech fan.
Seriously, just do it. If you’re really lucky, you might even get mom or dad to chip in an extra $100 if you’re really running low on Dining Dollars and then you can blow it on booze and JimmyJohn’s and Molly and things like that us old guys don’t even know about. Even if you don’t really care about football, use the free Friday and Saturday morning to go hiking somewhere amazing and then enjoy some cocktailing at whatever kind of tailgate you prefer. Even if the weather looks cold, the feeling of warmth from the time you spend with good friends during a night in Bridgeforth without any hint of the real world creeping in to spoil the fun is something that will stick with you decades longer than whatever the hell else you’d be doing back “home” that weekend.
Sincerely,
Two Middle Aged Alums Who Can’t Recall a Single Thing from Getting Home Early for a Break but Who Feel Fortunate to Have Lifelong Friends and Memories Bolstered by Responsibility-Free Weekends in Harrisonburg
You can thank us later for this early holiday treat.
Guys,
So creative and love your enthusiasm! But I want my kid home but you are right he can go back and watch them in playoffs while I shop for Christmas!
Bravo, gentlemen.
I wish we could post pictures in the comments…. I’d like to post a pic of middle-aged-life-with-kids right beside JMU-student-tailgating just to emphasize your point and make the argument crystal clear to the students.
I have been a follower of this blog for all my years at JMU but dang guys, this post nearly made me cry (literally). Realizing this is my last chance to really enjoy the JMU life since I graduate next month :'(
I was staying for the game anyway but you just convinced me to get all my friends to stay as well and make BFS rock this Saturday!
I remember staying with girlfriend, now wife, for plenty of pre-Thanksgiving games and even riding back early for the Wofford playoff game. That game is still one of the best memories I have at JMU.
“they are missing the point that taking two classes at New River doesn’t give you a license to be a diehard Tech fan.” Truer words have never been spoken. Awesome job guys
Great post and so absolutely true from this 50 year old alum’s vantage point. Looking forward to both weekends in the Burg.
My favorite JMU Football Memories are skipping Thanksgiving in 2004 and going to Lehigh. I forewent going home to GA to make sure I could travel with the Dukes. Then going to every away game, Furman, W&M, and Nooga. Best memories. I have a thousand Thanksgiving memories and will have even more, but you only get the time you’re in college once.
I’m a current student, and I’m sure many of you would hate me for it, but I’m not going to this game. I’m going home for personal reasons and I know JMU is in good hands with the folks that are going to the game Saturday. I mean, they are playing Elon in front of ~19,000 Harrisonburgers, that are actually in town and at home, plus hopefully 3000 students. The game is probably going to be a blowout and not very interesting, and I would stay if they were playing W&M or Delaware or any better team. And whatever the turnout, it’s probably going to be bigger than all the away crowds (except Maryland) JMU played against this year. They can handle it. I am however, coming up early for the playoff game, if it is at home, and already have my ticket.
I understand the sentiment but feel it deserves a counterweight. A lot of students struggle with depression or other emotional issues for the first time in their lives in those 18-23 years. I know I did, and others far more. So when you say, “There are few things better in life, and certainly none better from ages 18-23, than a weekend in the ‘Burg that is 100% free of responsibility,” I have to add a big BUT to that. I had a lot of weekends in Harrisonburg with no responsibilities, and many of them were anything but fun. If you’re struggling and feeling alone, that “free time” can be a black hole of anxiety. And JMU is such a happy place, with so many happy people and awesome parties, that depression feels even more alienating on campus than it already would anywhere else.
Even besides that, people are different and the college lifestyle isn’t for everyone. There is so much pressure to “make the most” of your short time on campus that I think it can really scare those of us who didn’t always enjoy it. I just want us to recognize that for some people, JMU is not the epitome of happiness in life, and that’s okay. Students who are not enjoying their time at JMU shouldn’t think that there’s anything wrong with them or that they won’t be happy later or in other environments. I worry that our enthusiasm for JMU can sometimes unconsciously send that message.
(For the record, I teared up walking out of Bridgeforth for the last time as a senior (damn you ODU!) so I totally endorse the general message: make the most of it if it means something to you, because it doesn’t last forever, yada yada yada. Just don’t want to forget or dismiss people who aren’t able to get enjoyment out of it, for whatever reason.)
Oh I totally teared up my last home game at JMU.
@LukeW91 we never considered your point while writing this, but thanks for bringing it up. It’s worth considering if for no other reason to remind folks that if they’re feeling depressed, they should reach out for help.
When did I move to communist Russia? Did I read this right? FCS playoff teams submit bribes…I mean bids…of at least $30,000 to host a home game in the playoffs? In what world do playoff games go to the highest bidder and not to the team with the best record?
@Rob (not that one):
In a world where teams outside of the top 25% of the field are paired on a regional / geographic basis and the NCAA doesn’t want to take a complete bath on paying for a playoff game with <2,400 fans in attendance in a 22,000 seat stadium (JMU @ EKU, 2011). BTW, the cost goes to 40K for the second round, 50K for the quarters and 60K for the semifinals…
* top 1/3 of the field
Dukes of the world:
The dudes speaketh the truth. Have some fun, support the team, smuggle in some booze. Go to the game and make some noise. Be loud, but dont be total dicks. GO DUKES BEAT ELON!
Re: Payoffs…….$50K won’t get a smell of playoff game. The NCAA make billions on big boys but extorts $100K+ from I-AA to host a game, take all the risk, and then…..share the profits if there are any. It’s nuts. $200K to open the doors at the Purple Palace. We can cover that w/Club & Suite tix.
Let’s Pack the Palace on 11-29 if we get the chance.
@Frank Ridgway: right on with that assessment. I didn’t make it clear that those $$$ are the minimums required. JMU averaged just shy of 14,200 in the pre-Taj Ma-Mickey stadium in for the 2008 playoffs. I do believe that hosts are also limited to a percentage of monies earned over the guarantee (15% is what’s running around in my brain).
If you’re writing “an open letter to dukes” how about it say:
let’s fight for more funding for full-time faculty so we can have smaller classes and better professors?
or
let’s work to have an actually diverse campus where a school of 22,000 has less than 800 black students?
or
let’s fight to have an administration that takes sexual assaults seriously, releases the names of male students who have been found guilty, and does something more than expulsion after graduation (for two, one assaulter actually still goes here and will be expelled after he walks this spring)? Or has resources that help students who have been traumatized, instead of giving them minimal support and putting them through a grueling student government trial, causing their grades to drop and revoking their scholarships. (re: Sarah Butters case)
attendance at our hyper-funded sports events is not what deserves an open letter.