Rarely in my lifetime have I been bowled over with a heaping plate of positive emotions, canceling out any negative happenings in my life at the time. The Eagles Super Bowl Parade on Wednesday was one of those emotional, jovial days.  

As soon as I arrived at 7:30 AM, I grasped the special day that was about to unfold in front of my eyes.  As my friends and I made our way up to the Art Museum, we planned to station there for the next 6 hours in hopes we would get a good view of the speeches from the players and coaches.  While that may seem like insanity to some, there wasn’t a minute where any of us regretted our decision.  

As we stood and waited for 6 hours with over a million people in front of the Art Museum, we interacted like we had known each other for years.  That is how special the bond between Philadelphia fans is, it creates community and shows love for one another, something getting increasingly rare nowadays in our country.  Everything about the parade made me bowl over with emotion, and the fact that my school couldn’t even bother to cancel classes on the biggest day in Philadelphia sports history didn’t affect me in the slightest.  Everything from Doug Pederson showing love for the fans, Carson Wentz saying this is the best city to play for, and Jason Kelce going scorched earth on the media and the doubters are things that I will take with me the rest of my life.

However, when the parade came to a close, and all the players were done giving their speeches, I had some time to reflect about the day from the tree branch I was sitting on to get a better view of the event.  The main question that came to my mind was ‘Why would my school go against the grain, and not cancel classes on such an important day for the city which their school is located?”

I’m still not satisfied with the response my school gave to us in an email about why they did not cancel classes.  “Not everyone wants, or needs to be part of the celebration.” Come on. Everywhere you go, and every college you attend is going to have students who don’t care about sports or want to be part of the celebration.  So tell me then why Cabrini, Chestnut Hill, Drexel, Arcadia, La Salle, Immaculata, Rosemont, St Joseph’s, Temple, UPENN, U Sciences, and all high schools around the area cancelled classes for the Parade.  Surely, there must be students attending those schools that don’t care about the parade festivities right?  Of course there are, but that’s not why they canceled.  They canceled because they understood the meaning of the day as it pertains to the city.  Even schools such as Immaculata and Rosemont, schools that are nowhere near Philadelphia and far away from the parade festivities cancelled classes because they knew how much this day meant to the city and the students who wanted to take part in it.  I saw several Cairn students from different backgrounds at the parade, all enjoying themselves and not giving a hoot about the fact that they had classes that day.  

As Christians, there are ideas or events that we oppose for biblical reasons. However, the parade did not necessitate a resistance. I saw very few instances of moral wrongdoing during my time at the parade.  No fights, limited cussing, no vandalism.  Nothing. Just pure, blissful, happiness. The parade was something I will remember for the rest of my life, and I feel for those who had to have an inner monologue of whether they should go to class or go to the parade.  However, nothing could destroy the connection between the players, the fans and the city that day, and even if you couldn’t come to the parade, just know that no matter what, you’re going to wake up tomorrow, and the Eagles will still be Super Bowl Champions.

Dilly Dilly.