Live on University

Last Saturday I graduated from the University of Oklahoma. I am officially an alumna of OU. Since Saturday, I feel I have been transformed. The amount of joy and relief I am experiencing, I never expected to feel this way.

It is a little strange to think about a university having such an impact on your life, but for me, the University of Oklahoma has changed my life. There is something special about going to school here these past four and a half years. The people I have encountered are truly extraordinary and the friends I have made have impacted my faith and my overall outlook on life.

There are so many elements of OU that make the university so great. One of my favorite aspects of OU is the clock tower playing OU’s fight song while walking to class. It’s a simple reminder of why you are going to school and what you are working towards. Another part I love about OU is leaving my job on Asp Avenue during the fall and hearing the band practicing for the upcoming football game. Walking into Gaylord in the morning and sitting in the lobby in silence before class, taking in the morning and the atmosphere of a new day was a part of my routine that I loved. Watching the orange, red and yellow leaves fall from the trees on campus during September and October reminded me of how the simple aspects of life can be the greatest. Being inside the Gaylord Memorial Stadium before a football game and getting to hear one side of the stadium yell “Boomer” and the opposite side yell “Sooner” in return is a tradition that reminds me how great a family OU is. After the Moore tornado, seeing hundreds of students rush to the dorms to bring in clothes, food and other donations for the families who had lost their homes the day before, showed me the selflessness of Oklahomans and of OU students.

There are so many great elements of the University of Oklahoma that you cannot see from the outside. After my boss retired in October, he mentioned that before he started working for OU, the person hiring him mentioned, “You’ll be apart of something you’ve never expected.” And attending OU these past years, I can honestly tell you coming to OU was unexpected. However through my uncertainty and fearful nature, I became apart of this family and this tradition I never expected to encounter.

The University of Oklahoma has given me an inconceivable education and an inconceivable college experience that has reconstructed and altered my life in ways I never thought were possible.

The other day I was thinking back on what if I had not chosen OU, what if I had gone somewhere else, how different would my life be? However, because of the role OU has played in my life, I think I was always destined to be a sooner. I was always suppose to end up in Norman, Oklahoma and fall completely in love with this University and the people who attend it. I do believe in destiny, and I believe OU was apart of my destiny.

Sooner Born. Sooner Bred.