Let's all say it together...IT'S FINALLY FOOTBALL SEASON! When I tell you I've waited since January for this day, I'm not kidding. I believe a love for football is a common thread among the Clemson Family. There's just something about a chill in the air and the smell of tailgate food on the grill. There's something about little girls in cheerleader uniforms and little boys in football jerseys that gets me every time. There's something about alumni returning to the place they invested so much of their time and, frankly, their lives in for 4 years (or more) and reliving the excitement of the Tiger Band blasting the Tiger Rag, the crowd roaring, police escorted buses filled with our favorite players, the thrill that runs through our bodies when we hear the cannon go off and the team running down the hill. There is truly nothing like it.
One of my favorite "hype videos" Clemson has released is entitled "It's Time to Come Home, Tiger Fans." Clemson is my happy place. Death Valley is my place of relief. Clemson University has felt like home to me since I first stepped foot on the soil here for my first football game. I will never forget the overwhelming feeling that I was in the right place. I knew immediately that this was going to be my home. There has not been a day since then, or since I moved to Clemson for college, that I have regretted that decision or doubted that sense of belonging. I am so thankful for a place of peace and joy that I found. It is my little piece of Heaven on earth. There is truly something in these hills. It's indescribable. Clemson is a place that from the outside in you can't understand it, but from the inside looking out you can't explain it. I will be forever grateful for the impact this special place has had on my life and the relationships I have gained from being placed here that will last a lifetime.
I would like to leave you with the famous words of Joe Sherman. I encourage you to really read them and take to heart what he is saying. I don't think this special place I call Home could be described in a more accurate way:
"There's something in these hills and from them we have drawn the
power to transcend the stresses and strains that tug away to make things
come unglued in these disquieting times, the power to cut through such
modern concepts - and such modern facts - as generation gaps,
communication gaps and ideological gaps.
Where is the generation gap when an alumnus who spent four years in these hills before the turn of the century says, "Next to my church and my home, I love Clemson University beyond all other institutions this side of heaven," and when a graduate-to-be says, "Excepting only my parents, Clemson has meant more to me and done more for me than anything that has touched my life."
There's something in these hills that has bound together a man of over ninety and a boy under twenty, something that has given them a common ground on which to stand and a start toward bridging, and eliminating, and gap or any stress or any strain that might try to make unglued whatever they seek for themselves as they move out of these hills into the mountains, the plains, the oceans, the forests, the skies and the storms of life.
We have all drawn from these hills something to suggest to youth that those over thirty can be trusted and to indicate to those over thirty that the qualities of youth are as sound today as they ever were.
There is something in these hills that brings together and binds together and holds together men and women of all persuasions, of all heights, sizes, weights, and cultural backgrounds - something that cuts across every difference, spans every gap, penetrates every wall - something that makes a man or a woman stand taller, feel better and say with a high pride to all within earshot, "I went to Clemson."
There is something in these hills that you and I can't define and others can't understand. A wave of warmth always surges through me when "outsiders" say, "I don't know what it is about you Clemson people, but your undying love for Clemson is admired by everyone I know."
There's something in these hills and I suspect that's what it is - the ability of an institution through the unending dedication and greatness of its people - its administration, its faculty, its staff, its students and alumni - to impart to all it touches a respect, an admiration, an affection that stands firm in disquieting times when things around it give impressions of coming unglued.
Yes, there's something in these hills where the Blue Ridge yawns its greatness."
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