Today marks the start of Back to Bates weekend, a complicated time for many students, I’d imagine. Quite a few of my friends are looking forward to their parents and siblings visiting them for the next few days, and I’m happy for them. I have conflicting feelings about Back to Bates, though, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. My parents, like many, aren’t coming up this weekend; they live far away, so visiting would require flying up, and I didn’t want to ask that of them, especially since it would only be for two days. I know quite a few people whose parents aren’t visiting them either, so I’m definitely not the only one, and my best friend’s told me that I’m joining her and her parents this weekend. I’ll still have the parented experience this weekend, just not with my parents. I’ll also be seeing a lot of people who graduated in past years, and while I’m happy to reconnect many of them, I’m nervous to see some others who may bring up both good and not-so-good memories. This is especially true with the people I really care about but may not have gotten to say a proper good-bye to when they graduated.
Back to Bates can be lonely for students whose parents aren’t visiting, particularly if many of your friends have visiting family members. For other students who may not have the best relationship with their family, seeing families on campus might be difficult in another way. For all of you who don’t have family visiting this weekend, you’re not alone, and I urge you to still take advantage of everything Bates has to offer for Back to Bates weekend: the acapella concert, the sports games, the alcohol tent for those of you who are of age, and quite a few other activities. This can still be a fun weekend, even if you don’t have visitors. Besides, this might be one of the few weekends on campus when Commons isn’t quite so crowded. Maybe.