Syracuse University’s Family Weekend. A time to visit your siblings, experience college life, and cheer on the Orange. Apparently, it is also a time to discover that someone will steal your McDonald’s delivery at four in the morning.

But we will get to that.

Our day started in Ithaca, where I visited my sister at Cornell University. After stopping by the barn to see the polo and equestrian horses and exploring fraternity row, we left around 3 p.m. for the roughly hour-long drive to Syracuse. I was excited to see my brother, and with my best friend Caroline coming along, I already had high expectations.

Once we arrived, our parked car became a makeshift dressing room. We traded our comfortable road-trip clothes for orange outfits and jean jackets, attempting to look like the effortlessly cool sorority girls we were about to spend the day around. Whether we actually achieved that look is debatable, but we were certainly dressed for the occasion.

Our first stop was my brother’s fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, for the football pregame. There was plenty of food and drinks, and the house was full of fraternity members and visiting families. One of my favorite parts was watching my brother in his element. He seemed to know everyone, including his fraternity brothers' parents. Caroline and I got to see a whole side of his life that we usually only hear about at home.

As we walked through the house, we passed framed photographs of members from decades ago. Syracuse’s Lambda Chi Alpha chapter was established in 1918, so there is plenty of history behind those walls. However, the face that interested me most in a recent group portrait was not a college student.

It was Stairmaster, a hamster.

My family cared for Stairmaster the previous winter, when my brother was new to the fraternity. Seeing our former houseguest featured as the fraternity mascot felt like discovering that someone you knew before they were famous had finally made it. Apparently, even the hamster had a place in Greek life.

After spending some time at Lambda Chi, my brother brought us to an outdoor gathering spot called Castle, a few blocks away. Students were everywhere, talking and spending time together before the football game. The scene reminded me of St. Patrick’s Day in Boston, except the sea of green had been replaced with orange.

It was also practically a fashion show. I kept noticing the sorority girls’ outfits and how everyone had turned the same school colors into something different. Caroline and I had put thought into our outfits, but clearly, some people had this down to a science.

Eventually, we joined the crowds heading toward the JMA Wireless Dome. Having visited my brother around the same time the year before, I already remembered the walk. For someone who does not actually attend Syracuse, knowing where I was going made me feel surprisingly accomplished.

My brother had gotten student-section tickets for himself, Caroline, and me, which turned out to be one of the best parts of the visit. If you are used to high school football games, standing inside the Dome is a completely different experience. The enormous covered stadium, the rows of fans in orange and navy, and the flags waving throughout the student section made everything feel bigger. Even Otto the Orange was waving to fans, fully committed to keeping everyone excited.

Syracuse faced the Louisville Cardinals in a game scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Louisville led 28–23 at halftime and ultimately won 34–26. Although the Orange could not pull off a victory, the close score gave fans plenty of reasons to stay invested.

Personally, I was having too much fun to let the final score ruin the experience. Being surrounded by college students cheering alongside my brother and Caroline made it easy to understand why game days are such a big part of life at Syracuse.

After the game, we headed back to Lambda Chi with my brother and his “little.” For anyone unfamiliar with Greek life, a “big” is generally an older fraternity member who mentors a newer member, known as his “little.” In other words, my actual big brother also has a college little brother. Family Weekend apparently comes with an expanded family tree.

We relaxed at the house for a while before Caroline and I stopped at my brother’s apartment to get ready for the rest of the night. The basement party was supposed to run from midnight until 3 a.m., which made it clear the football game had been only one part of the evening.

When we returned, people were starting to arrive. One thing that amused me was how differently entry seemed to work for guys and girls that night. From what I understood, guys needed to be members or pledging for Lambda Chi, while girls did not need that same fraternity connection. Whether you were a sorority member or a visiting little sister, the experience seemed much simpler on our side.

For a party at a boys’ fraternity, the playlist also seemed remarkably committed to keeping the girls entertained. Early in the night—and by “early,” I mean around 1:30 a.m.—the DJ was playing the kind of familiar pop songs that practically require everyone to sing along.

Downstairs, the basement was packed. Red, pink, and purple lights stretched across the low ceiling, illuminating spray-painted walls and a crowd that seemed to fill every available inch. People stood on raised steps along the side, while the DJ setup kept the music going. It was loud, bright, and nearly impossible to move through without holding tightly onto whoever was leading the way.

Losing your grip on your friend’s hand meant potentially starting a whole new evening with a different group of people.

By around 2:50 a.m., Caroline and I decided it was time to leave. We climbed through a side window, which was certainly a memorable way to end our time at the house. Then we headed back to my brother’s apartment with one final plan: McDonald’s. After hours of walking, cheering, and dancing, this felt less like a late-night snack and more like the reward we had been working toward all day.

When the DoorDash driver uploaded a picture of the delivery, Caroline ran out to get it.

The bag was gone.

Someone had apparently seen our McDonald’s sitting there and decided our order was actually theirs. Syracuse had given us school spirit, a football game, and an entire night of entertainment. Unfortunately, it had also introduced us to someone with excellent timing and absolutely no respect for other people’s nuggets.

We tried to order again, only to discover that it was now around 4 a.m. and the menu had switched to breakfast. We had stayed awake so late that McDonald’s had officially moved on to the next day without us.

Despite the loss on the field and the even more personal loss outside my brother’s apartment, I would absolutely go back. Seeing my brother surrounded by his friends, spending the day with Caroline, and getting a glimpse of his college life made the trip worth the exhaustion.

Next time, though, someone is meeting the DoorDash driver at the door.