Becoming a Bobcat

As freshmen, we all had to go through orientation. We all came down sometime in the summer and registered for classes and met a few people, that we all hoped would be our friends come the start of school. Then when we arrived with suitcases and parents close behind we were put into Paws Preview groups. We sat in a room, most of us in the same room in McCoy, and we talked about swipes and our dorms and we even got to meet our US 1100 teacher Mrs. Fox. After a lot of get to know your neighbor games and waiting in line for lunch at commons (unless you were cool and got to eat in your room), we all went on a field trip that symbolized the rest of our lives. We all had to make the long trek from whatever building we were in with our Paws Preview leader, down past the JCK building, into Sewell park, and into the Strahan Coliseum. Most of us were out of breath, and for me not being used to humidity yet, I was dying.

When our seats were found by color and number, and we were sitting next to those still hopeful friends, Convocation began. While the band was in the far corner playing our fight song, I sat there and realized, I am in college now. The speakers that kept going up on stage kept talking about the class of 2012, and it took me a minute to realize that I had just changed from the best high school senior class of 2008, to becoming a freshman again. It was wierd to feel that change and yet it was satisfying in a way. I had just seen myself take a step toward my future, something that isn't seen as much as it happens. When President Trauth got up on stage and finally welcomed us as a new class of Bobcats, ones with traditions, and thoughts of our own, that would inevitably change Texas State and make it bigger and better then before.

Being a freshman, I do not know a lot about the last classes of Texas State. All I have is the stories my older friends tell me, and already I am seeing a difference, not just to the school, but to the people. I have seen my friends grow up and when we went home for Thanksgiving, I realized that we are the still the class of 2008, but we are just improved and for us to be better then the rest it is going to take a few years, say 2012? When I tell people that I am from Colorado, they are always shocked that I am here, and not at a school back home. To that shock I respond, the school is good and the people are better, so why not come to school where I want to be and know I will like? As much as I love home, I consider Texas State a new home, where Convocation was the front door being opened and I am standing in the hallway.

So the best way to sum this up would be in one simple phrase: EAT 'EM UP CATS!!!!