Raisin Weekend is in five weeks. Running into my academic mother in Tesco last night reminded me just how excited I am for Raisin this year. For a second year, Raisin Weekend looks a bit different.

In second year, the academic children must organize what’s called a Raisin Revenge for their parents. The whole idea is to “get back” at your parents for all of the “terrible and embarrassing things” they made you do on Raisin as a first year. However, since my academic parents were quite kind, I have no horror stories. Essentially, Raisin Revenge is for the second years to return the favor of a good time over Raisin Weekend for their parents, especially since those parents are now stressed fourth years working on their dissertations.

Now, a bit of my academic family. I have heard from numerous sources that I have been blessed with one of the best. My academic mom, Ali, is one of the kindest people I met at St Andrews. She’s quirky, friendly, intelligent, and all around n lovely person to be around. She is very fond of costume parties and Halloween, thus, every family gathering here in St Andrews involves some sort of fancy dress. For example, one could not attend her surprise twenty-first birthday party without being in costume. I went as the Mad Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. Also, my academic siblings all get along quite well. We are all quirky and have our personality traits that mesh well together, so every family gathering is pleasant.

In order to make this the best possible Raisin for Ali as her last hurrah, two of the more outgoing siblings, Sam and Kendall, organized our Raisin Revenge six months in advance. And what children would we be if we did not have a theme? This year, we decided to keep the medieval theme alive from our Raisin and put on a party loosely inspired by Game of Thrones. Long live the King in the North!

Originally written 25 September 2013