Tiger Talkback: School Spirit for the Distance Learner

Letter to the Editor from Angela Allen

When I started back to school after a long hiatus, two things were extremely important to me. First, I wanted to be the first person in my family to get a college degree, and second, I wanted to earn the prestigious status of “Cum Laude.”

As a distance learner, I knew it was a challenge, but I felt I was ready to make the commitment to myself as well as to my family. We deserved better.

So what if I work full time and am a thousand miles from school. I would make it work.

School spirit was not a top priority for me. In high school, I didn’t get the “spirit” until I was a senior and always regretted not going to games, rooting for the team or wearing school pride gear.

I was the late “spirit” bloomer, if you will. I had moved to my high school in my sophomore year and didn’t connect immediately with the idea of the school attitude.

By all means though, I was not a loner, I just didn’t get it. It is easy to understand when your family moved pretty much every year because of your dad’s job.  Those “spirit” roots just don’t get established.

So here I am going back to college, and I have my mind focused. I will get my long-desired degree. I won’t get into the reason for the sudden return to school after 15 years, but let’s just acknowledge that the economy has not been kind for many.

I sent in the paperwork, requested my old transcripts and settled in for the wait for acceptance, or not.

The most peculiar thing happened, though, when I received my acceptance letter from Fort Hays State University.  If you have ever seen “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” this will immediately makes sense.

As I held that piece of paper in my hand, there was a fluttering in my chest, and a warm sense of pride came over me. It wasn’t all about the degree anymore. My heart grew that day with the knowledge I had been accepted.

I wanted to wear my pride, to acknowledge that I was going to FHSU.  So I made a pledge to myself. Every semester I successfully earned an A or a B in a class, I would allow myself to buy a small “spirit” item.

Everyone at my work knows I am going to FHSU, and not just because I have told them. It is the FHSU T-shirt I sported at a meeting one day.

My neighbors know I am going to FHSU, because they have seen me wearing my FHSU sweatshirt out on the patio. I am following the football games from afar: 2-1! Go team!

School spirit is a state of mind, a pride in belonging. I totally get it now. It doesn’t matter if you are on campus or 1,500 miles away, or even the other side of the world.  It is partaking in the idea of a community of people all there for the same purpose.

Whether a person is a distance learner or on campus, there is a pride in knowing we are FHSU. We are Tigers.