Got to share this visit.
My oldest of three is a junior in high school and beginning his college tours.
He wants to go to VU but it will be tough for him to get in unless he aces the ACT since his grades are not the highest. We will tour VU later this month.
In the meantime, he is looking at other colleges within 4 hours including UT (cannot believe I am saying it the in state Vols). I do not want him going there but I am open enough for him to look around.
Meanwhile, we visited the urange campus last Friday. Having lived outside of the state the last 35 years and except for going up to UT games to see the Dores beat the urange several times I never really visited the campus.
So we go on the tour and my wife tells me to stay calm and let my son be open minded and hear what UT has to say.
Well the ugliness comes out first. Within the first 3 minutes the tour guides come running out singing ole Rocky Top. About made me puke.
After that indigestion, I thought of my son first, he did not grow up disliking the Vols like I have since we have lived out of TN his whole life except for the last 1.6 years. Ok, so I say I can put up with this for two hours.
So we start visiting the student Union, library, dorms, the “rock”, the center of campus, etc. and then we stop at their statue that has the torch. Nice little story.
I am beginning to think maybe UT has changed and they have lost their insecure identity of who they really are. The tour guides are ending the statue/torch story and then they turn to the right and talk about Neyland stadium. They share the stories of many good football games and great atmospheres like that is all that matters— ugh! Give me a break.
Then the tour guide goes for the punch line. She says “over at Neyland this is where we play and beat Alabama, Florida and the Girl Scout troop #615 from Nashville - often referred as Vanderbilt.”
I about let her have it right there. They could not change their colors of who they really are. The only redeeming thing I heard was from my son who then turned immediately to me and said “they do not know we are behind enemy lines.” I could not have been more prouder than him since he first saw for the first time their true colors.
We finished the tour and he did not want to buy anything urange
.
I will let him make his own decision. He said if he ends up going there he will be one of the few UT students pulling for VU and wearing VU colors at games. Thought that was sweet for him to say. I would not expect him to do that. But, I think he knows why I pull for the Dores.
My oldest of three is a junior in high school and beginning his college tours.
He wants to go to VU but it will be tough for him to get in unless he aces the ACT since his grades are not the highest. We will tour VU later this month.
In the meantime, he is looking at other colleges within 4 hours including UT (cannot believe I am saying it the in state Vols). I do not want him going there but I am open enough for him to look around.
Meanwhile, we visited the urange campus last Friday. Having lived outside of the state the last 35 years and except for going up to UT games to see the Dores beat the urange several times I never really visited the campus.
So we go on the tour and my wife tells me to stay calm and let my son be open minded and hear what UT has to say.
Well the ugliness comes out first. Within the first 3 minutes the tour guides come running out singing ole Rocky Top. About made me puke.
After that indigestion, I thought of my son first, he did not grow up disliking the Vols like I have since we have lived out of TN his whole life except for the last 1.6 years. Ok, so I say I can put up with this for two hours.
So we start visiting the student Union, library, dorms, the “rock”, the center of campus, etc. and then we stop at their statue that has the torch. Nice little story.
I am beginning to think maybe UT has changed and they have lost their insecure identity of who they really are. The tour guides are ending the statue/torch story and then they turn to the right and talk about Neyland stadium. They share the stories of many good football games and great atmospheres like that is all that matters— ugh! Give me a break.
Then the tour guide goes for the punch line. She says “over at Neyland this is where we play and beat Alabama, Florida and the Girl Scout troop #615 from Nashville - often referred as Vanderbilt.”
I about let her have it right there. They could not change their colors of who they really are. The only redeeming thing I heard was from my son who then turned immediately to me and said “they do not know we are behind enemy lines.” I could not have been more prouder than him since he first saw for the first time their true colors.
We finished the tour and he did not want to buy anything urange
. I will let him make his own decision. He said if he ends up going there he will be one of the few UT students pulling for VU and wearing VU colors at games. Thought that was sweet for him to say. I would not expect him to do that. But, I think he knows why I pull for the Dores.
