Wherever I go I can't help but see a tiger; whether it's on a t-shirt, a statue, or a tiger paw, they're everywhere. I’m from D.C. and it’s significantly bigger than Clemson. The school pride down here is unparalleled to anything from back home, even though the suburbs that I come from is a community similar to this one. I have to have dozens of shirts that have my high school name on them, whether it is from football, lacrosse, or just a general shirt. Our football team went 8-2 this year and we set a record for the biggest turnaround ever in our district; we gained the loyalty of what had to be a couple thousand fans, but that school pride still can’t match the one found here. Granted that that was high school and this is college, but even other colleges in my area such as UVA and Virginia tech don’t have the same amount of school pride as Clemson does. Clemson has thousands of alumni, tigers are everywhere, most of the people living in the surrounding area went to Clemson, and the entire town is in support of this school. Even though the amount of orange and purple I see can sometimes get obnoxious, I’m falling in love with the college town feel and the sense of a strong, close-knitted community that I’ve found here. I’m happy to call this my new home and proud to be a tiger.
Well, welcome to Clemson! We certainly do bleed orange and purple here.
ReplyDeleteBut, you are absolutely right. The tiger paw and tigers are everywhere around here and just by noticing a paw we know exactly what is being spoken about.