Man, that was quick. Four years is up already?
Sure I will be around for one more football season, but as a graduating senior I’ll have to spend most of my time in bar … I mean looking for jobs, and I won’t be able to enjoy many of the activities that have become such a part of my life the last four years. This makes me one sad panda. But when I look back, I can still feel like the prom queen again, because I’ll always have my memories.
Here’s a look back at a few events that I believe shaped my, and many others’, experience at the greatest college in South Baton Rouge.
Freshman year, I joined Sigma Nu Fraternity. This was without question, simultaneously the dumbest and most rewarding experience of college career (except for getting a job at The Reveille).
Here I learned the value of hard work, friendship and kegs of Natty Light ($38.99). Sure, my GPA was about a 2.0, but you know what they say, “C stands for career.”
There was a little incident in which I also borrowed a few pumpkins from our neighboring community, but now we can look back and just laugh and laugh (or at least I can, because my probation is finally over).
It was a good thing that I had these activities to occupy my time, because LSU football sure didn’t do much to keep us entertained. Fortunately, this low point wouldn’t last long, because we won a fifth national championship in baseball and a new coach named Nick Saban was hired to lead us into the next generation of dominance.
Sophomore year was an interesting one, to say the least. Or so I’m told. I’m really not sure what happened because I spent more time in Tiger Land than Mike the Tiger spends in his cage.
From what I hear, though, I had a good time. Even through the haze I remember something about an SEC Championship, and a return to the glorious haze that is Saturday night in Death Valley (for the record, the haze never left).
This year wasn’t all fun and games, though. We found out that a serial killer was on the loose, terrorizing what had been known as one of the safest communities in the South. In a way, our quaint college community’s innocence was lost.
Junior year was when I, like so many other fellow seniors, was forced to get off my butt. I moved into a real house, got a real job and even started attending class.
I also got involved on campus, joining everything from Greek Steering Committee to the Cannibus Action Network of LA. This is when I truly realized what a wonderful and diverse campus life LSU has to offer. If I had one regret, it would be that I was not more involved in campus earlier in my scholastic career.
And we caught that damned serial killer. Despite themselves, the task force was able to apprehend Derrick Todd Lee (who, by the way, looked nothing like any of the 10,000 of sketches they drew) and return a sense of peace to Tigerland.
This year was the year when it all came together for me. Sure, I could have been one of those people who chose a career path and stuck with it, but I realized that general studies was the way for me to go (at least if I wanted to get out in less than five years).
With my newfound enthusiasm for school, I hit the books and began working here at The Reveille, but I made sure to find time to watch the Tigers dominate in Death Valley, overcome adversity in Oxford and annihilate in Atlanta. To top it all off, LSU won a national championship in our home state. I still pinch myself every time I think about it.
Despite the loss of my good friend Kurt Latiolais, who would have graduated this year, and the unceremonious discharge of good ole EN from what used to be called the Greek Community, this year, like all of my years here, was filled with more ups than downs.
There have truly been some great memories that I will take with me when I leave this campus.
None will be more special, however, than those of all of the people who have touched my life since I arrived here at LSU.
From literally knowing no one to knowing someone in every building on campus, I have had the unique privilege of meeting a wide variety of characters in my time at this university.
From my freshman roommate who was chronically addicted to 80’s pop and online role playing games, to the “white guy” on the basketball team, to the presidents of all the NPHC fraternities, I’ve met some of the coolest, most interesting people in the world right here on this campus, and they have all touched my life in some way or another.
To those of you who came in as freshmen with me who are graduating, I salute you. Even those of us who never met will always have the bond of being called the freshman class of 2000.
As you go into the real world, I beseech you to represent LSU well, or at least harass your co-workers from other colleges who never had the opportunity to win a national championship.
This year has, without a doubt, been the best of my career at LSU, and one that I will never forget. Of course, up until that point, I felt the same way every year.
For those of you returning next semester for one last tango in Tigerland, here’s to hoping that the tradition continues, and that this year will be better even than the last.