One thing that I struggle to understand in my advanced age is loyalty to one’s alma mater even after several years of graduation from the institution. To be clear, I had an unhealthy amount of “loyalty” (if you could call it that) for UP High School in Iloilo after graduating in 2008. I would make effort to travel all the way from the university I was enrolled in for college to UPHSI after my classes. Why? To hang out and relive the “glory days” of course. At 16 years old, I’d considered my high school years to be the best of my life.
But as the years progressed, those strong feelings started to wane since I discovered new interests and things of that sort. Even though we’d play basketball every Saturday morning/afternoon at the UPV court, the loyalty levels didn’t stop from dropping. As melodramatic as it sounds, the feelings never found new life ever again.
My point is this: whenever I see people extolling the greatness of their alma mater, whether it’s a high school or college, I am stumped at the reasoning behind it. Why? Why do you still care? LOL. I know some people who, at least pre-Coronapocalypse, never miss alumni activities, like it was their life’s calling to participate. Anyway, you do you, friend! What people do in their free time is none of my business (unless it involves me, of course), but I make it my business to know why. Because I am a curious person. Or nosy. Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.
Also, I also know some people who are invested in the actual academic affairs of the school — i.e. who is the head administrator now, etc. Granted, this could be due to an honest desire to give current students only the best education that could possibly be offered. Still, the amount of fervor and enthusiasm shown by these people is… interesting.
The only conclusion I could come up with is that this phenomenon could be attributed to our inherent tribalistic nature. I know when you Google “tribalistic”, you get a “derogatory” tag on the word, but I’m reserving judgment on if this trait is good or bad. Let’s save that for another day.
Also, nostalgia is a powerful drug. Even the most logical of people are not immune to the intoxicating taste of reliving the joys of the past. It can, when utilized properly, be a great fuel to serve your present. The past can also be an anchor that prevents you from moving to the future, so there’s that.
If that is your thing, more power to you I guess. It just is a head-scratcher for me. Maybe it’s the cynic in me.
I am aware that this isn’t too different from passionately supporting sports team, though, so to that I say “touche”!
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