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Homecoming week!
As one of the most important events of the school year, this week carries the most sentimental value. Lost brothers are found again. Memories are relived. All those feelings you haven’t felt in forever and all those things you hadn’t thought about suddenly rush back. That’s what homecoming does to everybody, but just like most things here at MMA, Homecoming tends to be a little more special. You see, the thing is that being an MMA alumnus puts you in some elite company. For many people it brings back the memories of all they did while they were here. Graduating from here is like the culmination of an era for many cadets. Alumni take pride in coming here, they are proud to say that they are graduates of the Missouri Military Academy, they love coming back here and being able to see how the Academy is doing nowadays and how things are going. This weekend in particular, I was lucky enough to talk to many alumni and ask them why it is that they keep coming back every year, one in particular, Sergio Elizondo ‘86, told me he came back because he felt a sense of belonging. That it was not only because of how proud he felt given that he has had 2 sons here, one of them, Sergio, in Bravo Junior School, and this year, Gabriel, the Battalion’s Sergeant Major. He also like to see how MMA evolves every single year, he says he learns something new from every class. At the end of the day, he said a something that really stuck with me. “I hadn’t come back to the Academy in 25 years since I left, but once I came back, it wrapped me up again.” This sentiment is widely shared by many alumni, once they come back for the first time, and they get to be on the other side, it is such a new experience, and one they wish to relive every single time they can. Because at the end of the day everybody leaves their own little legacy here, and they are reminded of it when they come back. They are suddenly back in their golden ages. Wild brothers, united at MMA again at last. They all gave in their little grain of salt, they all in one way or another contributed to what MMA is today. When you leave MMA, you don’t need to have been a Battalion Commander, or a Company Commander to be remembered. You don’t have to have been the most important cadet in the Battalion. At the end of the day, it’s not your rank people will remember, but rather your last name. Your name carries more longevity than your rank ever could. So to every single alumnus reading this, I want to remind you all that you are an integral part of what MMA is today. Because of you, the 128th corps of cadets stands taller than ever. If it wasn’t for all of those alumni who still help MMA stay afloat, I would not be here. If it wasn’t for all that they did for the school, I would not be here. When you graduate from here your legacy is cemented into a group of elite people. The few and proud who have had the privilege to graduate from here, and show off your ring to everybody that you used to know or have met. Alumni who may have a difference in age of more than 15 years may find each other and go out for dinner, and maybe they never even had the same teachers at MMA. Yet all of them went through the same things and experienced the same things. They are by default, connected and share a bond of brotherhood. These bonds are made to last a lifetime. Seeing the joy that Alumni Weekend brought this year only makes me want to be one even more. It makes me want to be able to come back and tell stories of what I did when I was here. Give cadets advice that I wish someone would have given me. MMA in some way or another will influence who you are upon graduating. I know I owe many things to the school, and I will cherish the moment when I can give back to them as an alumnus, yet for now, I must focus on being the best? cadet I can possibly be, maintaining the core values and traditions that make MMA so great. To all of you Alumni, thank you brothers. Thank you making my time here that much more special.
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