King Jeremy Thomas and his subjects

Last week may have been the most exciting, emotional, phenomenal week of my college career here at Missouri Southern. What started as a joke among friends actually became reality.

I jokingly said to my friends, "Hey, I should run for homecoming king."

With my friends supporting me, I started really thinking about running. After calling my mother and hearing her excitement, there was no question. I was going to do it. My first step was to get a registered student organization to nominate me, which is where my favorite organization, Campus Activities Board, stepped up. 

I would like to give big thanks to all the CAB members who picked me for their homecoming king candidate. It was a great honor for me. 

I won't lie, I tried to bribe some people with two techniques. One was delicious candy. The other technique I used was saying, "Hey vote for me and Kimmy, we're the only two black candidates." Maybe people voted for me because I'm black or maybe not, but telling people that and looking at their expressions was priceless. 

After a long first day of campaigning, I had to regroup and hit the campaign trail again the next day, which was the last day to vote. For some reason, I felt like something big was going to happen on the last day, and I was right. As I was getting set to start campaigning, I saw a bright purple dress and cowboy boots walking my way. 

I was like, "Wow! Who is that?" It was Samantha Evans, the soon-to-be homecoming queen. When I saw her I was like, "Well damn, even I would vote for her," so I had to step my campaign game up. I used my politeness along with even more candy to get students' votes. 

After what seemed like days of waiting (but was really only one day), the top five candidates were posted outside of the CAB office, along with a big billboard with the candidates' faces on it. With a big sigh of relief I saw my somewhat beautiful face and full government name as a top-five candidate. The very first call I made was to my mother, if you don't know already, this guy, Jeremy Edward Thomas, is a momma's boy. I say it loud and proud; I love my mom to death. I called my mom to tell her the good news and she says, "Really? You made it babe, I'm so proud of you, keep up the good work, I know you have a chance to win it now."

This was my second wave of emotions. I haven't been that excited since I found out there was a new bag of Skittles out. 

I would never forget what my mom told me the morning of the picnic. I called her and she asked, "Today is the day they announce the winners right?" 

I told her it was, she asked me how I was feeling. I told her I was very anxious, but extremely nervous too. 

She then told me, "Don't worry about it babe, even if you don't win, you're always going to be my king."

I normally do not cry, but honestly my eyes got a little watery after hearing that from her. She actually calmed me down for the time being. 

Time grew closer to crown this year's homecoming king and queen, and I couldn't lie anymore. I just told everyone I was anxiously nervous. 

My heart had not beat that fast since my days of running track. I was actually pretty confident prior to them announcing our names, but the confidence went away quickly after hearing the applause given to all the guys before me. I heard their ovations and became skeptical of my chances to win, because my applause was not as loud as theirs. But the silent majority won.  When I heard the man say, "And the 2011 MSSU homecoming king is ... Jeremy Thomas," I swear my heart literally skipped a couple of beats.