Homecoming

Convo is over. The amazing crew from the Center for Faith, Life and Leadership are quietly sitting at their desks, recovering from all of the work needed to put this amazing event on. As a student worker in the Communications Office, I was asked to work at the registration desk on Wednesday. I love the registration desk. Aside from checking in people who attend the event, I was able to do a lot of people watching.

Convo seems like the unofficial homecoming of Luther Seminary. Students return from their own congregations to learn and to socialize with friends and colleagues they only see once a year. From the registration desk, I see people shaking hands, hugging and catching up. This year was the added opportunity of seeing the shell-shocked faces of those from warm-weather climates as they had to walk from their car to Olson Campus Center. (As every year, the Norwegian sweaters made their appearance though I think their numbers were down. I really believe Norwegian sweaters are the unofficial uniform of off-duty Lutheran pastors.)

For the first time, I experienced Convo as a homecoming. A friend who has moved to her first congregation across the country from here attended Convo this week. I have eaten out more than I should and laughed so much my cheeks hurt. It was an amazing opportunity to become closer friends and not just spend our time catching up (that’s what Facebook is for) but to talk about things we care about and the share story after story about our lives.

I was able to catch some of the keynotes and they were fantastic (I did have to miss the workshops, much to my dismay) But it was the homecoming aspect of Convo which truly came alive for me this year.