Welcome back, Tigers, to a campus that is filled with energy and anticipation. As returning students, we await to see what amazing things the largest freshman class in Clemson history will do. As students, we look to the business school as it begins to take shape and define the view leading to our famous clocktower. As members of the Clemson community, we have our eyes set on Death Valley, eagerly and expectantly watching every game that paves the team’s way to another championship. The props are ready, the lines have been learned, and the stage is set; with classes in full swing and the fall semester of 2019 upon us, it is time for the production to begin.

Every student, every faculty, staff and community member will put forward their own performance this semester. There will be comedies, and there will be tragedies. There will be stories with no clear ending, and there will be final installments in a four-part (or more) series. There will be countless stories and productions unfolding on the stage that Clemson University supplies, and it is our job to see the value in every single one. 

The years spent at college are transformative, whether we want them to be or not. Students congregate on this small, beautiful campus, and they grow alongside one another. Some students have stories that never feature one another, but others produce two tales that might as well be one. The paths that our stories take us on may toss and turn, sometimes leading us away from Clemson’s campus, but those paths are taking us to our future.

That future might involve becoming a member of Clemson’s staff or faculty, or returning to campus every Saturday in the fall to cheer on the football team. Maybe Clemson is not featured at all after the end of some stories. Just as everyone’s story differs, no two futures are ever the same. 

That does not change the story that you are writing at this moment, though. Look around you, Tigers. Look at Library Bridge, packed with students and bookbags and dozens of tables. Look at the orange paw prints, freshly painted and marching their way down Old Greenville Hwy. Look at the places you have been and the people you have met. Clemson University is home to thousands of people, and for the time you spend on this campus, whether it be a semester or six years, you are a Tiger and this is your home.

So roar for your home, Tigers! We’ll be doing the same, just as we have been since 1907.