Internal Conflict

Mid-August, right before school began, and even for the first few weeks of school I felt like my childhood Utah Fan was beginning to burst out from my chest.  As many people know, I grew up going to Utah football games with my dad.  I was a pretty committed Utah fan.  That is, until I went to BYU.  I remember standing in the bleachers at my first BYU football game and feeling like a traitor.  It took several months of being in Provo before I started feeling like a true cougar fan.  Then I got my job doing events for BYU and my Cougar-love really took over!  So as you can imagine, I was a little confused as to where my true school allegiance lies now that I'm in school at the U.  Just like I did when I went to BYU, I decided to embrace the school I am attending and see what happens.

So, I geared up and went to the first football game of the season.  I don't have season tickets, but bought a couple off a friend who got stuck going to his brother's wedding dinner instead (poor planning, right?)

My roommate, Sarah, and me

Maybe it's because I cheered in high school, but I always find the stunts entertaining!

The game was exciting!  All the crowd cheers came back from deep in my childhood memories. Sarah and I had some good laughs at the frat boys who were standing behind us... it was the end of Greek RUSH week so the conversations revolved around a lot of pretty stupid things, if you can imagine.  By the end of the game, I was sure I could be a Utah fan again!

A couple weeks later was the BYU-Utah game.  All my friends, and even some family, asked what color I would be wearing that day and I had no idea.  I ended up telling everyone black!  Then the day of the game came.  I had some studying to do so I watched the game from home...in white.  

Talk about slaughter house!  Two minutes into the game BYU fumbled the ball right by the end zone and Utah was able to pick it up inside the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.  And that was just the first of SEVEN turnovers.  Every time we went to commercial break, ESPN showed a mash up of BYU fumbles. It was just awful!  However, by the end of the first quarter I had figured out what color I truly bleed.

I cringed for the first 3 quarters of that game and every time the fumble mash up was shown.  By the fourth quarter, I couldn't bare it any longer (I went upstairs to clean the kitchen and just listened to my roommate's commentary).  It was such an awful game!  But, when your team is losing and you still root for them, you know it is real.  I might be a Utah student right now, but I will always be a Cougar!

GO COUGS! 

Fall 2006 - with the ROTC after I shot off the George Q. Cannon