Homecoming parade at ISU

Standing up on the far left with the white hat on, I stand among the "babies" of Delta Chi and A.D.Pi just minutes before the parade began, sporting my Delta Chi shirt for recognition.

This past weekend at Illinois State, I was in the homecoming parade that marched throughout campus on Saturday, starting at 10 o'clock. The reason I was in the parade was for the fraternity I am involved with, Delta Chi (ΔΧ). My day began at 7:45 AM, when my alarm woke me up. I got dressed as soon as possible, grabbed Subway breakfast, and was out the Hewett-Manchester doors by 8:15 to be at the fraternity house by 8:30. When I got to the house, everyone was getting ready for the parade, making signs, and getting in the spirit for a wild few hours of parade marching. We met up with our two sister sororities, Tri-Delta (ΔΔΔ) and A.D.Pi (ΑΔΠ), at 9:30, awaiting the start of the parade.

When the parade started, everyone was ecstatic. I remember carrying girls on my shoulders, being piggy-backed myself, and doing something really stupid that I feel really bad for doing. Little kids were lining the streets among the crowd holding bags of candy open as the parade marched on by. Not knowing the aftermath, I reached into one of bags a little boy was holding and took a few pieces of candy. He looked at me with a saddened look on his face. As I walked away, it clicked that the candy in his bag was from people in the parade giving it to the children; it was not supposed to be for the people in the parade! From that point on, every piece of candy not scavenged by the children was my newest treasure to be passed onto the children. I would then give that piece of candy to the children in the streets, seeing them smile and feeling like I just made their day. Other that that little speed bump, everyone was in a festive mood, loving that we got our day started out early with much more to come the rest of the day. Some of the other highlights were the chants we did as we walked the streets, promoting Delta Chi. Also hearing people yell from the crowd that they loved our fraternity, or they were once involved. But among all, the best part was bonding with one another, building brotherhood, and spreading the word of our fraternity and the things we do for the community, to the community.