I am going to take this time, or these 500 words or so, to tell you all that I am not mad … I am just disappointed.

I am disappointed by the amount of Eastern students who are already scurrying back home for Labor Day Weekend.

For most of us, it was just two weeks ago we moved back to the good ‘ol Chuck. Though this place is small, we have to admit it has some sort of undeniable charm that keeps bringing us back.

So why is everyone so anxious to head back to their hometowns?

I have stayed in Charleston for every single Creepy Weekend since I was a freshman. Sure, not having a car on campus took away the option for me to ever go home, but it is a tradition I am glad I will be participating in again this weekend.

Creepy Weekend is a label given to those four-day weekends the calendar graciously grants us where a lot of students choose to leave Charleston, giving the campus and the town an empty, eerie—in other words, creepy— atmosphere. While there are a lot of people who choose to go, there are a select few who choose to stay and embrace all the glory a Creepy Weekend has to offer.

You do not truly learn what Charleston is or who you are until you celebrate a Creepy Weekend. If you have experienced one or you are a longtime participant like myself, you can understand the difficulty I am having as I try to articulate the strange vibes that float around during this time.

It is not the strong who survive. It is the imaginative who do. The key is find the other stragglers and figure out something to do every day and every night to distract yourself from the lack of human life and social life around you. In a small college town like this, it may seem impossible to do. But you need to go in with the right mindset and remind yourself that is what we college kids do every weekend, whether all of the student population is here or not.

You may find yourself spending it with people you have never exchanged more than a few words with at a party in a house you never knew existed. Or you may find yourself reaching out to people you have lost a connection with but recreate in just a few short days. Or, if you are like me when I was a freshman, you trick one of your friends at a different university to visit you and navigate the unfamiliar waters together with same lack of direction.

No matter which route you take, it is the last thing from awkward because it is survival—you and whoever you spend Creepy Weekend with know that you need to coexist in order to fill the absence of everyone you would normally spend time with on a weekend. In a way, it is like the everyone from the Island of Misfit Eastern Students unite and make the most of the weekend together because the alternative is much worse—spending it alone.

If you have experienced a Creepy Weekend yourself, you most likely agree with me when I say some of the fondest memories and friendships are formed during these weekends. There is a sacredness in Creepy Weekends that cannot be replicated by any normal weekend at Eastern.

Instead of doing what’s easy and running back home, challenge yourself to stay and see both Eastern and Charleston through a different lens. I guarantee that if you don’t, you will graduate with a large piece of your college experience missing.

Carole Hodorowicz is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at cdhodorowicz@eiu.edu.