During the flurry that was Homecoming, I was able to reunite and catch up with some of my favorite alumni. “How’s work? How’s grad school? I’d totally love to visit some time! Oh, your student loans won’t be paid off until you die?” It was good to see so many familiar faces, because for me, Etown hasn’t been the same since they’ve left. And apparently, they think so, too. My best friend stayed into Monday to participate in a departmental presentation for some of the first-year students. The first thing she said to me was, “They don’t hold the doors. This place must be going downhill now,” with a smirk that would leave Lucius Malfoy reeling.

While I haven’t been plagued by the door-holding issues that troubled my friend, I have, over the course of my four years here, noticed a decline in the quality of human interaction. Maybe becoming more pessimistic is part of growing up. Or maybe things are how they’ve always been, and I missed it in the beginning because I was starry-eyed. The sales pitch that got me and many others was that “Etown is one big family”  – that everyone knows everyone, everyone gets along and that’s the Etown way!

I got slammed with that concept on tours, during admissions events and even during my first year from some of the upperclassmen. They must have experienced some of that too. I want to forgive the senior who told me that TGIS is just a big hang out, seniors and first-years hand-in-hand with doting Campus Security. Maybe this year. Chances are that I’ve gone about college completely wrong – all of you alarmingly happy people are hiding around the corner saying that there is a “family” that we’re all a part of – current students, alumni, family and faculty. And you see this at alumni events; you hear the incessant “Blue Jays. Always.” And then there’s that other motto, “Educate for Service.” Oh, yeah.

The College uses these two mottos for the same end. We’re sending a message, letting you know who we are and what we’re about. “Educate for Service” is what we push to the external groups; it’s a business card, a brochure, a “check here to receive more information” box that we use to present ourselves to the outside world. The other motto runs the roost once you’re within the parameters of the Etown community – now that you’re here, you know that you belong here. Forever. Both are used to promote a sense of unity and identity, but because of a missing link, at least for me, they’re falling flat on their faces.

The recent Into the Streets event is supposed to be the big service highlight of the semester with clubs, faculty and staff and alumni joining forces to do some good in the world. A great event runs its course, and then we disperse and get excited to do it again next year. Because we’re “Blue Jays, always.” But one of the issues affecting this particular problem – our “Educate for Service” promo – is that service isn’t a one-and-done kind of thing. Luckily, we are fortunate enough to go to a school that sponsors trips  to locations all over the globe: Florida, Mississippi, Vietnam and Ethiopia, just to name a few. All of those are not only opportunities to do amazing things for other people, but they also have potential to be life-altering experiences.

But even with those trips being as once-in-a-lifetime as they are, they still aren’t enough; they aren’t all-encompassing of the life that is one of service. This is where we pan the camera back to campus, back to the daily interaction you have with peers and faculty and staff. You realize that you have the opportunity to, and should feel obligated to, serve one another every single day. While it may be a large, scheduled and elaborate occurrence, service can also be as simple as holding the door for someone or smiling and waving to someone you walk past instead of whipping out your phone 15 yards away and acting like you’ve got a new notification. You’re not that popular. But you could be, if you’d go out of your way to interact with your peers more.

I don’t want to get to the end of my four years here and feel like I’ve been lied to and taken advantage of. I wanted Etown to be my home, but even more important now is that I want it to feel like home. Better yet, we should all want one another to be a part of that. And if it is this way, do me a favor and find me, take my hand, and bring me to the good people, please.