Western welcomes you back to Homecoming 2010!

What is it about Western that makes thousands of alumni return year after year?
Is it the feeling you get at the Richmond Gates?
Or maybe the sight of University College tower as you cross the bridge.
Or meeting friends from a time when every experience was fresh and the future stretched out ahead of you.
The buildings might not all look exactly the same...
but those old feelings will come flooding back.
Memories created by moments at Western.
Those were the crossroads years of your youth.
When a casual friendship might last for decades.
And when romance might - and often did lead to a life together.
It's the faces...
real or carved in stone
staring down from the facades of our regal buildings.
It could be football that brings you back.
The excitement of that Mustang grit on the playing field.
Tailgate parties.
The stands bursting with students and alumni.
Our national champion cheerleaders.
Painted faces and blasting air horns.
The sudden the eruptions of spirit and song.
Every school year brings fresh highlights but some linger and become tradition.
Rick McGhie at the Spoke,
O-Week,
Shinerama.
Or donning your graduation gown.
Hitting the books.
Pulling pranks as a frosh.
Or just relaxing on University Hill.
Even if your photos are in black and white,
every Western graduate dreams in purple.
There is something comforting about that kind of tradition,
a tradition based on learning and growth.
For decades, alumni of The University of Western Ontario have made a tradition of "coming home" -
to meet old friends and make new ones,
to visit familiar haunts and continue a lifelong connection with one of Canada's great universities.
We all share in a common experience...
the "Western experience".
So whether you're coming home for a good meal, a beer on the patio, the parade, football
or a little golf.
The experience will reignite memories from an important time in your life.
Recapture those moments.
Call up a friend.
Bring your family.
Connect with a classmate.
And return to a place you called home.
Your Western family welcomes you back to Homecoming 2010!