Oct. 9, 2013
There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. Where we love is home—home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. Love begins at home. Who says you can’t go home? Sweet home, last train home, long way home—home, where my music’s playing.
There are a lot of sayings and songs about home—with good reason. Everyone has a home. Not necessarily a physical house, but a home. It might be a mansion, it might be a hut, and it might even be a park bench or a place you go to in your mind. But it helps define who we are, what we do and the paths we take.
You might have a lot of homes in your life. I know I do. I grew up in a loving home in metro Detroit. I made a couple of homes with my husband and daughter. I will always call Michigan State home. And, you really can always go home.
I’ve come home to MSU many times in my life, sometimes for a brief visit, and three times for longer. I first came home as a freshman, living in Campbell Hall. After my husband’s stint in the military, we came home to finish up our degrees and lived just off campus. After graduating and working in metro Detroit, we came home again to raise our daughter and so I could work on campus. In between those times, I came home for football games, to visit friends, for concerts, to stroll the gardens, visit the dairy store or just wander around. Each time was special.
It’s Homecoming week at MSU so I’m guessing a lot of people will be returning to a place they once called home. (With about a half a million living alumni…there are a LOT of people out there who might call this place a home!)
This year’s grand marshal, Geoff Johns, is one of those heading back to East Lansing. Johns is a 1995 College of Communication Arts and Sciences graduate and the chief creative officer of DC Entertainment and a superstar in the comic book industry.
Building on Geoff's line of work, the theme this year is Creating Spartan Super Heroes, celebrating the life-changing impact Spartans have all over the world. (Read more about Homecoming)
Lexis Zeidan is an MSU senior and a Homecoming Ambassador who is already using her Spartan superpowers to change the world as part of the Destination Detroit. The project is a very cool initiative at MSU that brings together diverse student groups who work with young students in Detroit and serving as positive role models. Read Lexis' STUDENT VIEW to learn more about her experiences.
As part of the Homecoming activities, the MSU Alumni Association created a comic book league of Spartan Superheroes that include Sparty, The Sower, Cognos, The Muse and Epic.
While it’s pretty fun to have Spartan Superhero cartoon characters, they really are based on the characteristics of the smartest and most innovative Spartans we have on campus and elsewhere.
Take Cognos, for instance. She’s said to be “an expert in crafting something that was meant to shine light into dark, sometimes unknown places, she keeps the flames of knowledge and curiosity glowing bright. Her humble beginnings propelled her to be inventive in her thinking, opening the eyes and minds of others around her to many possibilities. Cognos was given the following superpowers: Superhuman intellect, telepathy and the ability to change things by using her mind.”
Sure, she’s a cartoon character, but that description could easily be used to describe Gemma Reguera, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Her lab studies the adaptive responses of microbes to their natural environment and exploits this knowledge to find novel biotechnical applications for microbial processes. If that doesn’t sound like something Cognos would do, I don’t know what would. Read Gemma’s FACULTY VOICE to learn more about her work.
This place is filled with so many more brilliant Spartan Superheroes just like her. I love that this is my home. If you haven’t been back in a while, come on home—we’ll leave the light on for you.
Spartans Will.
Lisa Mulcrone
Editor, MSUToday