‘Smells Like School Spirit’

Last night I walked the streets of Auburn, AL. It was graduation weekend for those fledglings flying out into the real world. A special needs high school student, who I met and mentored for two years; is a massive sports fan of Auburn University’s athletic program. We go to one Auburn sporting event once a year, usually a football game. But, next month, he is moving out of town and our relationship will be severed. So we took in a college baseball game as our last event together. Any time I go to Auburn, or any college town,  I realize just how fast life moves. It is easy to feel aged and out of place in a setting such as that. But, it also gives me great zeal for my alma mater; which happens to be Auburn’s greatest rival, The University of Alabama. It was not by coincidence that I choose this weekend to watch my alma mater play our greatest rival. It was icing on the cake I could take Bryan with me one last time. It not was always this way. I once was a fan of Auburn University’s athletic program. But, when it came time for college, Alabama was the only logical choice because I’m left brained. I scored in the teens on math and  logic and in the low 30’s in vocabulary/wording on my college entrance exam. I’m clearly VERY left brained. Auburn is the ‘numbers’ school. People who are right brained and more mathematically inclined go there. Your architects, engineers, natural scientist get degrees there.. Whereas Alabama is your ‘words’ school! It is a school for the fine arts. Things like journalism, dance, music, literature and law are specialized at UA. It is an artist’s university. That is why I love it. I don’t care if we win football championships each year. I don’t live vicariously through other people. But, the fact the two schools are so starkly different culturally is why I love my school so much. Auburn’s school colors even demonstrate its commitment to the hard sciences. Blue, denotes stability and calm, strength with little emotion. While red represents passion and creativity, which happens to be the University of Alabama’s colors. Some of you may be saying I never went to college, I cannot relate. You can though, because cities can take on the same identity involving personality. For instance Chicago is a ‘right brain’ place for the business man or woman. Los Angeles is the left brain capital of the world, full of writers, performers and musicians. New York, being so large is for both. The lesson I learned last night is this: whether you are right brained or left brained! Whether you are Auburn University or The University of Alabama or Chicago vs. Los Angeles; there is a place for you in the universe. No matter which college, community or endeavor you are called to, your inate gifts will lead you there.

J.C.B. May 4, 2019