Mega Reunion
My first Mega Reunion experience was short, but it was definitely sweet. I first heard about the event through a few of my fraternity brothers a few days before the kickoff. When I heard that the Mega Reunion would hosts hundreds of alumni throughout the past decades, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I later found out that the library needed a few volunteers for their section, so I signed on in a heartbeat.
Me and a few other student assistants were given a pretty cool task for any alumni that walked into the library. A few tables were set up, each representing a particular decade and dozens of photographs scattered across the service. Our job was to greet the alumni at the door and show them to these tables, were they were asked to identify individuals in the photographs. One of the library staff also set up a voice recorder in a nearby room for alumni to recount their time at Longwood University. The audio files would later be archived into our digital commons.
I was very hesitant to approach the alumni at first. I had no trouble greeting alumni at the door, but I felt weird engaging with them as they delved into their photographs. I felt like I would be intruding on their nostalgia and memories they may have lost long ago suddenly revived. However, many were very polite and asked me how I liked Longwood, prompting me to open up conversations. I was fortunate that many were willing to recollect their time at the school, and it was interesting to see what was at the university at the time compared to what we have now. The reflection of the past and optimism for the future is the best way to describe the tone of our recollections. It made me realize that years after they graduated, they still held that love for Longwood, a love strong enough to travel back and relive those memories. By the end of my shift, I wondered if I would be doing the same ten, twenty years from now, and if I would inspire students like the alumni inspired me during Mega Reunion.