Made my way to Oxford, Mississippi this past week, and it was an unbelievable experience. Visited faculty and friends, attended a panel discussion, and attended my first Ole Miss football game as an alumnus.

While I'm more analytical now when it comes to watching sports, there was something different this time. To be on a campus that no longer is your playground and learning field, where all that remains are memories and those who share them, will (obviously) change your perspective. Although...there's nothing quite like locking arms with the person next to you and swaying in unison to the sound of Jimmy Page & Sean Combs' "Come With Me" as your alma mater's football team does the same while entering the gridiron.

This feeling isn't confined to the sports arena, and the difference seventeen months can make is dramatic. It's almost frightening. There's some reliving, some remembering, but you quickly understand that the formative years you spent laid a foundation for the adult you're becoming.

It's always wonderful to be in a place where there are people whom you know and respect, and where the same people know and respect you. Ole Miss conferred a degree and sent me to Syracuse, and the lives who touched mine in those four years continue to echo today. Visiting was truly like going home (to be fair, it was homecoming).

It's extra motivation, really. There lies an extended family that adopts you as one of its own. It protects and encourages you; not in absence of your own biological, supportive family...but in addition to it.

In short, awesome trip. Can't wait to go back.

Hotty Toddy.