the south

Homecoming at an HBCU is unlike any other experience I have had in my life. This year’s SpelHouse (Spelman and Morehouse) Homecoming was a week full of different fun events. Homecoming started during Fall Break, but there were still a lot of events even though the school was closed.

On Monday, there was no school, so it was just the kick off at Spelman’s oval. There was food and people got really hype about Homecoming week.

Tuesday, there was the neo-soul concert. Elle Varner came. She was really good, but like every other event, it took forever for her to take the stage. Before she came on, there were a lot of students promoting their mixtapes. Some people were good; others needed to get off the stage as soon as possible. Elle Varner was charming with all the fans. She took pictures with people on their phones and to me she was a great performer.

Next was Hump Wednesday. Hump Wednesday is every Wednesday, but this Hump was especially unique because it was Homecoming Hump. At this Hump, the freshmen stroll teams strolled. Each freshmen dorm had students audition for the stroll team and once the teams were decided, they practiced a lot to get ready for the stroll show. I remember after audititons, I could hear the stroll teams practicing the same routine over and over downstairs because my room is right above the taproom. At Hump, I think the vibe that the girls were going for was more of a sexier feel, while the guys strolled like the frats on Morehouse’s campus. Since I live in LLC1, I obviously felt like LLC1’s stroll team did the best! Chi So Fly!

After the freshmen strolled, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. brought out the girls that would be competing in their pageant for Miss Black and Gold. Each of the girls introduced themselves and afterward, they strolled in the likes of Alpha Phi Alpha. During Homecoming week, pageants were also a big thing. There were pageants for Mr. Freshmen, Mr. Sophomore, etc. and Miss RHA, which was a competition between girls that represented each of Morehouse’s freshmen dorms.

Thursday was the SpelHouse Fashion Show, which had student fashions, modeled by students. That same night there was the Hip-Hop concert. 2-Chainz came. I didn’t go to the Hip-Hop concert because while I like 2-Chainz’s music, I was not in a huge uproar to see him in concert, plus the tickets were $30.

Also on Thursday, my roommates and a couple other friends went to a frat party at a club called Mansion Elan. The party was called Pretty Nasty and Omega Psi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi hosted it. When we got into the party, it was already underway. The frats were continually strolling. I had a lot of fun; I danced with a LOT of Ques and a couple Kappa’s. Although we didn’t get home until really late, I think you all would be happy to know that I still got up and went to class on Friday morning.

Friday was the first day of Homecoming weekend and also Alumnae weekend. Friday’s event was Market Friday. At Market Friday, a group of vendors come to Spelman’s campus and sell clothing, food, Greek apparel, and various products that they think college students want to buy. Since it was Homecoming weekend, they had to change Market’s venue from the Lower Manley Patio to the Amphitheatre in front of the Suites, which was a bigger area. They were so many alumnae from both Morehouse and Spelman and I just remember thinking that I wanted to be these people one day. They were all just to happy to see how the school had changed and catch up with old friends.

My favorite event from Homecoming week was the tailgate. For SpelHouse’s tailgate, they blocked off all the streets surrounding Morehouse and Spelman. When walking out of the Spelman gates, I could already smell all the food cooking. Walking down the streets, there were tents for the Greeks, tents for vendors, and tents for alumnae who purchased tents, just because. They was also a ton of food, and the good part is that most of it was free. They was lots of music. Also during this time, the football game was happening between Morehouse and Albany State. Not a lot of people went to the football game, most people stayed and walked around. I met a lot of students, and I also saw alumnae that I knew from home.

That night we went to the Greek Step Show. Performing were the Deltas, the AKA’s, the Ques, the Kappa’s, and the Alpha’s. The show was fun. Each Greek organization had some creative themes. But in the end, for the fraternities, the Kappa’s won, and for the sororities, the AKA’s took the trophy.

Later that night, we went to our final party of Homecoming week. The party was called Project X, and although it would have been a lot of fun, it turned out to be a bust because we ended up waiting outside for like an hour and a half, and when we finally got in, it was too crowded to dance.

Overall, Homecoming week was bomb and I had so much fun. It took me about another week to recover from everything that we did. I’m so excited to do it all again next year.

Yet another party with my mains!

I decided to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. First off, it’s hella hot down here and I don’t know why I came down considering I’m allergic to the sun.

So anyways, the story starts like two days before my family and I were supposed to leave. I’m at Mayfair to get my allergy shots, I start the car and it sounds like metal grinding on metal. So I try to drive anyway and it was jerking and sputtering. I’m super embarrassed at this point because the car is making super loud sounds and people are watching me. So I pull back into a park, and turn off the car. After a while, I start the car back up and I think everything’s okay. I start driving, heading towards downtown to pick up my mom, and the car starts jerking again. I get super stressed out about it, like I’m sweating profusely because I don’t want the car to give out before I get to my mom. So, by the grace of God, I make it downtown in one piece. I pull over to let my mom drive, but the car won’t stop rolling backwards even after I turn it off. Turns out some part fell off the car and we had to send it to our family mechanic to fix by the next night (Thursday) so that we would leave by midnight and still be on schedule to get to Atlanta.

So, of course, nothing in my life goes according to plan, and our mechanic doesn’t fix the car in time. Thursday comes and goes, and on Friday morning, my mom has to go to a car rental place to get another car. If you knew my dad like the Table does, you would know we can’t ride all the way to Georgia in a little mini-van. So after my mom has been at the rental place for an hour, we finally get a car that’s bigger than our actual car. We’re finally able to hit the road on Friday, August 8th at about 2pm. Way later than planned.

Going down to Atlanta was me, obviously, my parents, and Jaylen, my younger brother. The drive was about 13 hours, which my parents split, but I still stayed up about 10 hours of the entire way. We finally got to our hotel at 4 am on Saturday, August 9th. Mind you, I had to check in at 10 am, so the entire family is working with practically no sleep.

Move-In Day was an event. Like they had a ton of people moving in at one time. We had to walk to our check-in location, walk back to get the car out of the garage, pull up in front of the dorm, remove all my stuff from the car, take the car back, walk back to the dorm, and finally take the stuff upstairs to my room. Be aware that its at least 95 degrees outside with no breeze whatsoever. But the good thing is, I’m staying in a dorm with air conditioning.

I’m currently staying in temporary housing with four other girls. At this point, it’s okay, but obviously not ideal. I live in LLC1, also known at the Living and Learning Center. Chi So Fly!! I stay on the second floor. The other freshman dorms, Manley, HH, and Abby don’t have AC. So when we do dorm call and stuff, one of our sayings is “LLC got AC! You mad!” The other girls’ names are Kyla (from New Jersey), Roxan (from Miami), Kristann (from Atlanta), and Talisha (from Detroit). Some people are irritating, but it comes with the territory. Our room is like a big open space, but you can’t have any privacy because there aren’t any dividers or anything.

I’ve met a lot of people here . Spelman College is relatively small, only about 2,200 undergraduates. There are about 540 girls in the freshman class. It’s a private, liberal arts college. Right now the best part of being a freshman is the camaraderie. Like each dorm has their own hand signs and calls and it’s fun, when in the middle of the night, the freshman dorms have dorm battles. So you run to each dorm and everyone does their dorm call.

I know you’re all wondering about the boys. The boys are literally always on campus, LURKING! Like sometimes it’s ridiculous. But the first weekend, every Spelman woman got matched up with a Morehouse brother. My Morehouse brother is literally the best person in the entire world. His name is Malakai . He’s from New Jersey. He plays the saxophone in the Morehouse band. He’s a biology major and he wants to be an emergency room doctor. He’s so sweet and nice. Like he brought me medicine when I got sick the first week of school. So hopefully our relationship lasts. I’ve also met a lot of girls. I can’t remember half of their names, but that’s okay. They’ll be alright.

This year my goals are to get a 4.0 because I want to get scholarships to pay my tuition. I also want to have a lot of fun. All the upperclassmen tell us that freshman year is the best year to experience Atlanta because once you start your major; you basically have no time to do anything.

I’m most excited to party. Like I went to my first party already. It was called Welcome to Atlanta V. It was at a club called the Enclave in downtown Atlanta. So they told us there was going to be a shuttle that would take us starting at 9 pm, but I look at my phone and its 9:55 and the shuttle still hasn’t come. So my roommates and I took this cab-like thing called the Lyft to get to the club. We get to the club and basically skip half the line, but we still have to wait in line for another hour before we can even get into the club. We finally get in and it’s dark and hot. They played a lot of good music though. The only thing I didn’t like was that they were smoking a lot of black and mild’s and I kept breathing it in. Also the drinks were super expensive. I didn’t drink any alcohol, but like water was $3, and I wasn’t trying to be about that life. Also it was hella hot. Like me and everyone else were literally dripping sweat, but I still had a good time. It’s gonna be great.