My son and I sat in Neyland Stadium as the game began. The University of Tennessee’s band marched on the field and formed a giant T. The football team then ran through it as the crowd erupted into cheers. It’s one of the most thrilling moments of any Tennessee football game and one I was so glad to be able to share with my son.
I looked down at the T formation on the field, or Power T as the folks like to call it and smiled. It has been 23 years since I graduated from the University of Tennessee, but that single moment took me back in time. I thought about how UT shaped me. I thought about my own personal T. How three points of it have made me what I am today: Training, Tradition and Tenacity.
Training: I wish I could line up my professors, resident assistants, coworkers, advisors, teaching assistants and friends on the 50-yard-line and have everyone in Neyland Stadium give them a standing ovation. They earned it. Not only did I learn in the classroom, I learned at The Daily Beacon, in Greve Hall, in a small bar on the Strip (where I occasionally played harmonica) and in the library. Each person and place I encountered made me better in a different way. My five years in Knoxville shaped me and gave me the skills I needed to achieve professional success. I always tell people that I got just as much of an education outside of the classroom as I did in it. That’s the beauty of college. It’s a giant laboratory where you can try, fail and work your way to success.
Tradition:
My grandfather, dad and I all had classes in Ayres Hall. My dad and I sat in Neyland Stadium for the first time in 1980. My son and I sat nearly in the same section 34 years later. And who knows, maybe someday he’ll sit with his son and cheer UT’s football team running through the T, too. While the traditions on football Saturday move my heart, Tennessee’s traditions are bigger than just on Saturday. It’s tradition of volunteering at UT has permeated me like oil on a canvas. It’s a sense that we’ve been given so much and should give back.
Tenacity:
When Dr. Faye Julian looked me in the eye and said, “You can do better,” I did. She knew I could achieve more because she believed in my talent. I also learned from an accounting class gone terribly awry. Being on the brink of failure taught me the value of not quitting — I pulled up a solid F to the only (and best) D I’ve received. I also had prove people who didn’t believe in my dream wrong and I did. I learned that if you fall, you get back up swinging. I also think about Dr. Sarah Gardial, my advisor, who believed so much in my ability that she went out of her way to make sure I was taking the classes I would need for my career. (She’s now the dean of the University of Iowa Henry B. Tippie College of Business). And of course, there’s The Daily Beacon. That’s the cauldron where my dream to be an editorial cartoonist was forged with a combination of deadlines, hard work and tenacity. That tenacity has served me well in my career, battle with cancer and in life in general. Because if I hadn’t of had it, all the training and talent wouldn’t have mattered. I would have quit. Or worse.
So today when I see an orange Power T, that’s what I think about. I think of the opportunities I was given and the challenges I faced. And how they shaped me for the better. Yes, when I see the Power T, I’m grateful. Very grateful.
Go Vols.