Every college student and alumnus alike can probably relate to that certain amount of suspense and excitement that comes with your college acceptance letter. For me, attending high school in Texas meant that the suspense was essentially nonexistent (thanks to Texas’ Top Ten Percent Law). However, the excitement of attending Texas’ flagship school was definitely there when that letter came in the mail.
Before you knew it, I had Texas shirts, hats, beanies, and even put the emblem on the back of my car. (And no, I didn’t get a Longhorn tat, but you get the idea.) I had yet to take one course at UT, but you probably couldn’t tell by looking at all the burnt orange in my closet.
The initial thrill of college was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The culture shock, the diversity, the parties (the women!), the football games, EVERYTHING, was all coming at me 100 mph and I was loving every minute of it. I can remember standing in line with my roommate for a basketball at 6am, a full six hours before tip-off and suffering a terrible one-sided sunburn after a football game. College was everything I’d hoped for, and I was glad I chose to spend my time in college as a Longhorn.
Then came fall semester of my sophomore year, the semester that I decided to become a full-fledged Conquistador. Similar to the pre-freshman period of my life, there was plenty of suspense (right?) and excitement. And I tell this to new Brothers and interests alike: there is nothing like that feeling when you first rock your (these are really mine?) letters. Nothing like that first time when you look in the mirror and say, “I’m now a Brother of Lambda Theta Phi…wow.”
Before you knew it, the burnt orange shirts, hats, and beanies were replaced with brown ones. I even put letters on the back of my car. (And no, I didn’t get a Lambda tat…not yet anyway.)
If you thought I went a little overboard with the burnt orange pre-UT, I definitely overdid it after I crossed. I spent a little too much time on Collegiate Greek/Greek Nation window-shopping, and, after some money came through, actual shopping (shoutout to all those old heads that kept me from the dreaded double-lettering). I even started buying just brown clothes, cause, well, all of sudden brown just looked really good on me.
It took me a while to realize what had really happened: Lambda killed every ounce of school pride that I had. I’m glad to say that I have the school pride back, but I always have to live with the following two things (and I have Lambda to thank for missing out): (1) I passed on a chance to go to the 2006 National Championship game in Pasadena, you know, “the Vince Young Game,” and (2) I was too busy my senior year to see the great Kevin Durant in person.
Damn…I’m an idiot. Thanks for all the lifelong friends and memories Lambda. And thanks for killing my school pride at the best possible time. Let me grab this brown towel to dry my tears.