FOMO: Homecoming window painting

Last week, UTRGV hosted Homecoming, a week-long event that brings the UTRGV students, faculty and staff together to celebrate Vaquero pride, according to its webpage.

One of the activities I participated in during the week was painting a Student Union window on the Edinburg campus.

Though The Rider could not participate in the Window Painting Contest since it isn’t a student organization, we were still able to claim a window and decorate it to represent our program.

A few coworkers and I got to the information desk at the front and told them that we had a window reserved. After we were reminded that we would not be included in the competition but still allowed to paint a window, the student employees helped gather the paint and materials we needed.

Once we found our window, we started to outline what our design would look like. We knew we wanted a newspaper in the middle that would announce the other festivities Homecoming included and list our social media handles.

We continued working on our design and were met with trial and error. Transferring our sketch onto a large-scale medium was more challenging than I anticipated.

For one, we underestimated the spacing needed between the letters. The letters would start big and bold, then turn petite as we neared the end.

Only more “happy accidents” happened after that. Still, it was always nice to share a laugh with everyone whenever one of us accidentally colored outside the line, spilled paint or mixed the colors incorrectly.

After nearly three hours, we wrapped up, took a few steps back and admired our work.

I’ll admit that I tend to be a perfectionist with much of my work. If something is sketched and the product isn’t how I hoped it would be, I tend to put myself down and tell myself I should’ve done better or more. But this time, I didn’t mind if we didn’t put as much as we hoped because I got to paint a big window with the best company anyone could ask for.

This experience, for me, wasn’t about winning recognition for the best window of all the entries. Instead, it was about being involved in school events and traditions with people you didn’t know until you got to college.

My advice for all the incoming students, whether it be their first year in college or at UTRGV, is to be a part of something on campus. You’ll find new friends and experiences along the way, so make some college memories while you’re still here.