WT rains out Midwestern

Well, we brought home the herd. 
After a week of marshmallow and weenie consumption, bonfire building, guarding, and burning, homecoming dances, parades, floats, fairs, elections, marches by torchlight, maroon and white decor, we can finally say that we came home in 2008. But it wasn’t made official until our domination on the football field took place. Buffalo fans from far and wide gathered last night, and by four thirty it was next to impossible to get within a mile of Kimbrough Stadium. I was reminded of my home in the Dallas metroplex as I putted along the service road wondering if I was ever going to get out of first gear. 
But the traffic was the least of the problems facing our homecoming game in this year of our Lord 2008.

Upon arrival to the parking lot a very nice baseball boy dressed in green waved me on into the lot, where there was officially zero places left. I nervously made my own and glanced around for a 5-o. Luckily I made it away without a parking ticket.

It was strange to me that despite the drab weather everyone seemed chipper and ready for some football. I walked past the sea of tailgaters and I noticed a few games of washers, and aggie golf going down, and the smell of hotdogs and hamburgers was thick despite the rain. College boys stood shirtless in the precipitation covering their chests with paint, shivering with WT pride.

There was an hour to go until kick off when I made my way into the actual stadium. To my suprise, the place was already packed and I had a hard time finding my friends in the mess of maroon everywhere. By the time I got to them the rain was starting to pelt us a little bit. Soon thereafter old ladies were taking cover beneath seat cushions, and some were begining to talk about running for the hills.
A huge streak of lightning colored the gray sky, and the big voice came over the system to announce the delay of our homecoming for an additional half an hour.

Pack it up.

It was as if the announcement itself opened up the skies. The rain hit us like bullets as we sprinted back to the gates, we waited to get our hands stamped and hid beneath our purses, foam fingers, and hoodies. We retreated back to our cars and crammed as many people as you could imagine into a mid-sized SUV.
Wondering if our homecoming dreams were going to be ruined, we turned on some Jack Johnson music and sang our little hearts out as we awaited the big game.

You may be able to postpone destiny, but you cannot cancel it.

A giant rainbow appeared over the stadium as we re-entered with our hand stamps, as if a promise of our coming victory over Midwestern State University on our homecoming. I’ve never seen a full-fledged rainbow like that before, it was straight lucky charms style and I half expected leprachauns to walk on the field, though I was relieved to see it was our buffalos ready for battle.
The first half was close. It was shaping up to be a good game, fueled by noise makers, and cheers for Keithon Flemming, a running back and all-star rapper known on the streets as Young Boss. By half time I’d lost my voice completely and the score was a solid 21 us, 14 Midwestern.
Although we weren’t up against Eastern New Mexico for homecoming this year, you could feel the tension as we went into the game again.
Little did we know, that our team was just taunting them the entire time, and it turned out to be a complete blow out.
It seems like WT football domination is inevitable. Unfortunatley so is rain despite our desertous location, and when the rain came back for a second drive by, most people, knowing we had the victory in the bag, tucked tail and headed for dry ground for good.

We stuck it out to the end, and though we were dripping wet from head to toe, we walked away with a victory, memories that will last a life time, and a cold that will last about a week and a half.

Go Buffs.

The Residential Life during Homecoming Week

I have always been a part of Residential Living here on campus, and homecoming week by far is the busiest/most eventful week WT has to offer.  Aside from professors thinking it is a great week to make everything due, it seems that for once everyone comes together in the spirit of West Texas A&M.  Residential Hall Association (RHA) puts on many of the events for this week, giving students a chance to get out of their room.  That is if the students stay here during the week and weekend.  I have been blown away in years past at the number of students that just can’t make it away from home more than Monday through Thursday.

This year I finally see it slowly changing.  With the increasing sizes of the freshman class, I feel this year we have one of the most involved.  Being an RA in Buff Hall I see how involved students get.  This week RHA has done a great job getting students involved.  I have never seen as many people at the Marshmallow Roast, excited about building the bonfire or guarding it, and even a paper football tournament with the chance of winning two free cowboy tickets!!!  It’s insane! Even last night at the midnight weenie roast tons of people showed up braving the rainy weather.  The halls look amazing this year as it looks like many residents took pride in decorating.

I feel that the pride of WT students continues to increase this year, and I hope it does not stop after Homecoming Week.  I hope everyone will attend the Bonfire tonight, the parade and football game.  I hope WT becomes a place that students enjoy being here as much as I have.  I mean a Montana kid that loved it so much his sister followed him here.  Out of state students have also been increasing which is amazing (WT students represent 48 out of the 50 states), because we can’t go home on weekends we get to enjoy WT all the time.  I hope we see the parking lots remain full on the weekends, rather than the usual emptiness on campus.  So I hope all on campus have enjoyed this week, and will get out and enjoy this weekend!  GO BUFFS!

Guarding the Bonfire. An account of time standing still.

It was 2:44 p.m. on a lovely Tuesday afternoon, and I desperately wished that I was curled up in a fetal ball of warmth upon my bed.

Last night was the Marshmallow Roast at the bonfire site directed and sponsored by RHA. A grand ol’ time was being had by everyone. The festivities began about 10 p.m. as groups of students arrived in groups of eight to ten. The campfire was extremely hot, which made it semi-suicidal to try to even roast a marshmallow. At the height of the roast, there were probably 200-300 assorted bodies present. As the time ticked on, though, many left for the comfort and warmth of their beds and soon it was only the few, the proud, and the brave that were left, sacrificing their night of sleep for the security of the bonfire.

Guitars were whipped out around 1 a.m. The songs were varied as worship songs were intermingled with Oasis and Secondhand Serenade and some Matchbox 20. A competitive game of washers that would run to 4 a.m. started as well. Hot dogs and sausages arrived on the scene causing a ruckus to the hungry students. However, many a sausage and dog was lost to the heat of the fire as the unstable hangers supporting their weight dropped the various meats into the flame. This was an incredibly sad ordeal. Personally, I lost a sausage on the outskirts of the fire but was able to borrow some gloves to fetch it. I tried to eat it but it was covered in West Texas dirt. Sad story.

Around 2 a.m., activity around the campfire began to wane as the cold September night set in. Many students tucked themselves into their blue and red sleeping bags to sleep through the night. The back of pickups slowly filled with students trying to grab a wink of sleep. Others made runs to Allsups. A run to Whataburger was even made. This was also around the time when time itself seemed to go to sleep. The minutes seemed like hours and the hours like days, especially for those of us attempting to remain awake the whole night.

By 5 a.m. the campsite was almost completely dead as almost everyone was asleep and those that weren’t were chatting quietly to each other. Thankfully, an angel in disguise among us had brought enough eggs and sausage to feed a small army. We started cooking the eggs and sausage on his nifty camping trinkets. The following breakfast burritos were among the best I have ever had. They were so good to a tired empty stomach. Then he had the audacity to make homemade donuts. We fried biscuits with holes poked in them. We then dumped the result into a bag of powdered sugar and shook it all up. The result was incredible. Warm tasty doughnuts.

As the sun came up, the beasts emerged from their respective positions around the fire. We ate and cleaned up the campsite, which was quite dirty from the night’s festivities. After we finished tidying up a bit, we all started to wait out the morning until it was finally time for us to depart.

Let me just conclude that this endeavor is not for the light of heart of weak of mind. The day after, I went to sleep at 4 in the afternoon and did not rise until 9:30 a.m. the next day.  Good stuff.

We will kick, pass, and run, ’til those Greyhounds are done…

Homecoming!

Pigskin Revue, the bonfire, Fair on the Square, parades, concerts…  I LOVE homecoming.  For an entire weekend, the entire town of Canyon turns maroon — it seems like everyone has a maroon shirt to wear, and little kids with buffalo horns on their heads run around with their “buffs up” (the WT hand sign: thumb and pinky up, three middle fingers folded down.  That’s the one.)  Students decorate their residence hall entrances for the weekend, eat a turkey leg after the parade, and take lots and lots of pictures by the huge bonfire.  But the most exciting part of homecoming is….. (drumroll…)

THE GAME!

 I’m not a sports buff — I played flag footall once, and got my eye punched out — but the football game is perhaps my favorite part of homecoming every year.  This year was no exception… it was without doubt the best yet. 

goodness, gracious, great buffs a fire!

Homecoming week is officially over. Sad. However, I do have a confession to make. Friday afternoon, I was sick of Homecoming. All the work, all the paint, the pomp, the time, the headaches for what a day’s worth of events. I was OVER it.

I was over it until, Pigskin Revue, the big pep rally before the bonfire. By the third time the band played the fight song, I had regained part of my Buff Pride. At the same time though the thought was in my head, “Can we please get this over with? Bed is sounding awfully nice!” After Pigskin was over the Student Body Officers, the RHA President and Dr. O’Brien headed over to the Eternal Flame to light the torches that would eventually light the Bonfire.

It was that little flame that lit the flame in my heart. I was passionate again for WT, for Homecoming. I was a part of the torch processional. We marched across the Pedestrian Mall {WHOA! AMAZING Experience….I’m excited about this new tradition.} We followed the O’Brien’s car as we travelled down the streets of campus; the band was blaring the fight song, the herdsmen were chanting, bells were ringing. The energy was AWESOME!

As the Bonfire was lit, my passion for Homecoming was regained. A smile was on my face the rest of the night. The Bonfire meant so much to me, it was my last Bonfire as a student. It culminated my University experience. So many memories were brought forth. I saw so many friends both current students and alumni. The whole community was out there. The Bonfire unified everyone. We were all Buffs for that night.

Work-a-Thon

Today was WT’s Work-a-Thon day. Basically, Work-a-Thon is a campus clean-up/money-raising day. Different organizations get groups together and pretty much work their butts off for a couple hours.

Some people paint. Others might pick up trash.

Me? I worked on the bonfire.

Let me explain a little about bonfire building. Years ago, there were these people over in Northern Africa… in Gaza to be exact. They lived in Egypt and therefore called themselves Egyptians.

Now these Egyptians liked to build things. Like the Pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. They built pyramids. Or more like they enslaved peopled and had them build the pyramids.

Bonfire building is kind of like that. You go out in the heat, get really sweaty and dirty, and cut yourself up a bit.. Everybody gets in a line and passes wooden palettes down the line to build up the bonfire kind of like playing with Legos.

It takes hours and hours to do this. Days, even.

And then we burn it all away.

“Why in the world would you waste your time doing that if it’s so miserable!?” you might ask.

Well, I really don’t know. I can tell you this, though: there’s something about building the bonfire that will really help build relationships with people on campus you might never have met. The idea of working on something that everyone here on campus can take part in really helps to build that campus community that’s really important no matter where you go to school at.

So is it hard working on the bonfire? Yeah, I won’t lie and say it isn’t. But it’s also so very much worth it when you get to stand there on Friday night and watch as it ignites into a pyre that could be seen for miles around.

Do I have school spirit? I think getting cut up and bleeding for my school probably means yes.

-Jere

Closing time…

I ordered my senior ring today.  Whoa….Graduation is coming.

Coming sooner though is Homecoming.  Things have been so hectic in the Student Government Office {I’m Vice President of the Student Body} this past week getting ready for next week’s activities.   Things have been so busy that I haven’t had time to go by my tickets for Cross Canadian Ragweed, who is the band that will be playing immediately after the football game on the 13th. If you are going to be around Canyon next week, you should totally come to the festivities and the concert.   Check out the Homecoming Site  for all the details about next week.   All my friends are gearing up into campaign mode for King and Queen.  Seriously…one of my friend’s won’t stop checking his Facebook group numbers.  It’s intense. It’s a lot of fun. 

 Alrighty….off to night class. 

-wes