College life lasts forever

On yet another calm and quiet Saturday night, the time came for many aggie fans to make their way over the aggie memorial stadium to watch this year’s homecoming game.  I thought that this game would be a great time to observe others, as instead of just normal students and locals that came, quite a few alumni came from out of town to attend the annual festivities.  The addition of this diversity made the game even better for myself and those around me.  The observations began as soon as I left my room to make it to the game.  As I was walking to the game, it was realized by several of the people in my group that it would be much colder than expected, so we all turned back to go get jackets from our room.  As I was walking back, I saw this group of students that appeared to not be getting ready to go to the game.  These students, the three of them all probably freshmen or sophomores, were all Caucasian, and ranged between about 5’ 4” – 6’ 3”.  The three were all dressed up in blacks and duller colors such as gray.  The group was sitting together outside, talking amongst themselves about random topics, as one of them had heavy metal music playing out of their phone in what sounded to be a horrible quality. 

On our way to the game, I was walking behind a small family that seemed just as excited to go the game.  The family was Hispanic, and composed of a mother, father, and two young boys both probably under the age of 8.  For a while it seemed as if the family had a third child, as the father appeared to be intoxicated and was running around and acting in a very similar manner to his youngest son.  The family did however manage to make it inside the game in one piece, and at the end of the game I did see the man later, and he seemed to be in a slightly more mature state than he had been 3 hours prior. 

I noticed that outside of the main student section, which was not even that large to begin with, the majority of the crowd seemed to be adults.  This did not surprise me too much as it was homecoming week, and many alumni come in to town every year.  However, there was one group of alumni that was standing in front of me during the game that definitely caught my attention.  These alumni seemed to be more involved in the game and more focused on the game than anyone else; even going so far as to stop talking whenever a play would start.  They were cheering as loud as they possibly could for any event that transpired during the game.  It was not until half time of the game did they really begin talking, and some of the sentences that I overheard were definitely out of the blue.  Comments about things such as the Mona Lisa, squirrels, or hockey began to get thrown around, as it appeared that these alumni, all in their mid to late 40’s were all intoxicated.  It was not until the end of the game did I realize that one of the men that was standing in the group happened to be the manager of the business that my sister works at, and a close personal friend.  It is always humorous to see situations such as this.

Another group nearby me was a small group, of about 3 individuals.  They were all of much darker skin, and varied in age greatly, with youngest being probably 25.  They were some of the only people their not cheering for the aggies.  They were positioned right in front of the other team’s cheerleaders so that they could cheer along whenever the moment arrived.  This group was not nearly as intoxicated as some of the other patrons that were nearby, however it was still obvious that they were continuing to drink as the night went on.  They did not cause a disturbance, or do anything unusual, but it was interesting to see that a few fans of the other team did make it out to the game, despite being several states away.

              It came to my attention over the course of this weekend, and more specifically during the football game that people never seem to change much after college, but instead retain the party life style that they probably developed during their time in college.