This is a guest post by TallahasseeScene’s Chaise Bishop.
Everything about me screams UGA.
I park my car on Florida State’s campus with a Georgia front tag. I proudly wear my Bulldog hoodie around campus. I am in a constant battle with FSU football fans about my loyalty to the SEC. I have been called a traitor. I have been called out by my friends, family and fellow classmates alike. The constant badgering has left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a jaundiced outlook on Florida State as a whole.
Last night’s events have left me with a different attitude.
When I woke up this morning, all of the bullshit about football teams, rivalries and pride faded away. My phone was bursting with text messages, calls and notifications asking if I was okay. I didn’t know why. Scrolling through social media, I learned that a gunman entered Strozier, shot three students and was then killed by FSUPD.
We hear about school shootings frequently, but we never think it could happen on our own campus. I had friends in that library. Sorority sisters. Acquaintances. People who were supposed to be there, but for some reason didn’t go.
Via: USA Today
Instead of looking through my newsfeed this morning and being annoyed by posts of national championship hope and more Winston controversy, I saw something very different: post after post of love and support and prayer.
For the first time in four years, I looked at FSU as my university. I watched with a humbled heart as our school and community banded together. Even the University of Florida’s YikYak showed an outpour of kind words for the Seminoles.
I looked at Florida State and the Nole Nation as a great place to be. I didn’t look at the university as a football team. I didn’t look at as a rivalry. I didn’t look at it as a campus full of fans that weren’t like me.
Via: Tag the Bird
Today, I saw a team. Not a football team, but a team of students who have all found themselves in the same town trying to reach the same goals. A team that has been faced with a horrible tragedy. When I saw the videos of students on campus in mourning, my heart broke, but I felt proud to be a part of this university.
There comes a time when the rivalries go away; a time when the football buzz is suddenly the last priority, when students all over the country country drop their arrogance and price and become a united front.
I am a Bulldog fan, through and through. But in this moment, I have realized that there is something so much bigger out there than that.
Today, I am a Seminole, and I am sending all my love and prayer to my fellow Noles.
We are FSU.
Feature photo courtesy of: USA Today
