LSU is unique. Its the only place I know where sofas belong on front porches, beer is as plentiful as water, keg push-ups are a form of exercise, and the parties never end. LSU is about much more than classes. Its an experience that you will treasure your entire life! What is it about Baton Rouge that gets in your blood, making you bleed purple and gold, and intoxicates you...literally with its sweet Southern Comfort?
Maybe its the way it feels to sit on the grass of the parade grounds on a sunny day. To study before a test, only to get side tracked by the beauty of the campus, the people, the architecture, and the oaks. It could be piling in a truck with six of your friends and riding around campus on a sunny afternoon deciding to head out to go barhopping in New Orleans the night before you have an 8:30 class the next morning. Catching your favorite local band in Tiger Land and knowing one day soon they'll be famous. Hanging out at Georges, catching the beer and burgers special on Friday. Eating the heart attack in a box from Canes and enjoying every minute of it.
Spending more time trying to see who's in the library than actually studying there. Laughing at the drunk guy who was arrested for singing in his boxers after a football game. Storming the field after an upset knowing the goal posts are coming down despite the state troopers that act as pathetic deterrents and taking your piece of the field with you as a memoir. Stopping and realizing when you're out with your best friends that these are the people that will one day be in your wedding. Maybe its the football games...finding a date the night before, dressing up, and sitting in the student section trying to keep dry. Trying to stomach a Beam and Coke while tailgating at 9 a.m. after a long Friday night. Recognizing that same excitement in the eyes of older alumni who keep coming back year after year...joining their old friends and hoping to catch a glimpse of their youthful times at LSU. Our time here was short, but we made the best of it. We were only there for four or five (or six or seven) years.
Now were making road trips to Baton Rouge instead of from it. Joining our old college buddies. Still dressing up for the games and still scanning the crowd for familiar faces. But one day we'll be dressing differently and the familiar faces will be a little more scarce. We will have moved off to our little world, engulfed in the many endeavors we seek. But when we return, that same excitement will be rekindled again. We'll look over into that student section and remember when it was our time here. How quickly it came and went. We'll wonder what happened to all the people we used to know, like the guy in Free Speech Alley or Samurai Jack in the quad.
"Because it's everything Bama isn't; better than Tulane; a southerner's dream and a northerner's wish; the pride and joy of the great state of Louisiana; Mike the Tiger; I bleed purple and gold; Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night; Ole Miss's worst nightmare; and a place that can get in your blood and stay FOREVER"
Its where we make those friends that we never lose touch with. Those companions that you can relate to. The ones that remember pledgeship and all the things that scared you to death and you sure as hell didnt want to do but did anyway and laugh about now. We'll lose touch with a lot of people and names will be forgotten, but you'll always have your close friends from your days at LSU. You'll tailgate at your alma mater together only to have that swelling sense of pride explode in your heart when you look back at that stadium. Looking at it with awe in the company of old friends. Most of your conversations will begin with these two special words that will have the power to make you laugh and cry all at the same time..."Remember when...."
Forever LSU!