Josef Spence – Contributor

A weekend of purple pride where everyone is adorned in the colours of our school, where the gaiters roar in the stands and on the field and we raise a toast in endless rounds. The weekend of Homecoming is when we really show what it is to be a part of the community of Bishop’s — joined by past generations of gaiters in our celebrations, we all come together in cheering on our sports teams as one-by-one they take to Coulter and play their fiercest. Whether they win or lose is irrelevant, for this is the weekend where the skills of our school are championed and the spirit of the school surges as though it were a great wind rushing through the school, one that cannot be stopped no matter the force it is up against, and whether well performed or not these skills of our fellow gaiters are glorious in our eyes. Though we have passed that weekend, this gusto of the spirited purple pride need not go into hibernation until that weekend comes again next year. 

Photo courtesy of Pranav Buchineni

I found last year that Homecoming was one of the most exciting and fun experiences I have had here at Bishop’s because the whole school is filled with school spirit. Yet that spirit died down significantly after Homecoming, not to the point of disappearing but certainly being much less powerful, more subtle. The games at Homecoming were packed by students showing their purple pride and not only did game attendance go down afterwards, but the display of our school colours did as well. This is quite sad as BU has a great history of intense and immeasurable purple spirit that unites its community, and its loss between celebrations speaks to a separation of people arising intermittently in the community. But it doesn’t have to be like this! 

True school spirit, real pride in our school, our community, is steadfast. By this I mean that it is constant: it does not drop away simply because there is no special reason for that pride to be shown. It is always there, both expressly and implicitly. Furthermore, it does not cease simply because the object of its passion has been reduced in splendor; losses and failings in skill do not cause it to be abandoned. This pride is not rooted in the appearance of momentary glory of the school or convenience, but in the fundamentals of its community, so no present difficulty can do anything to eliminate it. It is always confident that the community has something especially unique to it. 

We can find this kind of purple spirit and channel it into our everyday lives so that it lasts throughout the year. When we walk out the door, we can be conscious if we are representing our school colours, even if it is just on campus. When we are making our plans for the week, we can look to see what sports games or art performances are in that week and dedicate time to being there to support our community. Indeed, in trying to practice our purple pride explicitly, eventually we will maintain it implicitly and we can truly say that we bleed purple.