All Family, All Friends, ALL IN

          Auburn football is more than just watching a football game or grilling burgers and hotdogs. Auburn football is so much more to so many of its family. For some a game day date freshman year turns into a husband years later and bringing the little ones to their first football game; others Auburn football is a father son bonding experience every Saturday that will one day include a grandson. Auburn football is a way of life. Auburn is a family and we are “all in” there is no other way that we know.

            The Auburn family includes everyone: the players, the fans, the student section, and the alumnae. As someone who has grown up as an Auburn football fan being here as a student has been magical, sitting in the student section screaming out cheers and cheering for our team is something that cannot be easily put into words. Everyone has their own part in being apart of the Auburn family, the players are a key component because they determine the feel of the rest of the Auburn family. The fans can take the football team who is behind in the third quarter and reenergize them into a victory. The student section is an experience unlike any other, they go from in love with the team one moment to unbelief over a missed pass, this however passes and we will always love our team. Lastly the alumnae, they are who fund our amazing team; through donations, buying season tickets, and donating scholarships for students they are providing the future for the team and the students, continuing the tradition.

            The process that occurs before football season is one that is extraordinary. The transition from summer to fall, the transition from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Saturday’s to grilling out, the transition from being strangers to a family all rallied around Auburn football. The process of packing a car with your family, tailgate food, and something you don’t physically pack but your Auburn pride. You head to the plains to meet old friends, make new, and to support your tigers. This doesn’t happen in the spring, or during the summer, this is what fall means here in Auburn, football.

            When someone asks what Auburn football is about it is something that you almost have to experience for yourself and can’t be put into words. One can travel the world and go to the Louvre in France and tell you about how beautiful the artwork is but until you go for yourself and see how beautiful the Mona Lisa is and all of the other history in the Louvre you will not know. Auburn football and tailgating have their own beauty it might not be the same as the Mona Lisa but it is a beautiful sight to all Auburn fans. Orange and blue take over the campus along with tents filled with people who all love Auburn football. To prepare for my Auburn football experience I got dressed in my orange and blue, put on my AU face tattoo, and went and waited in line to get good seats. I was hot, sweaty, and did not look nearly as good as I did before I left my dorm, but I did not even really care. I was there to support my boys, my team, Auburn.

            As I watched Saturday unfold, literally and figuratively, as tents unfolded with folding chairs, as the burgers and hotdogs cooked, and as the Auburn family converged onto the loveliest village, strangers became family with the simple phrase “war eagle.” The way that Auburn turns into a family and is even kind to opposing teams fans when they come to visit shows how much we as a family truly care, sometimes you have those members you do not want to love but have to by default, these are our opposing teams. Without someone to beat we wouldn’t go anywhere so Washington State University (WSU) was a necessary evil but as I walked to my dorm after the game I heard a WSU family talking about how kind all the Auburn fans were that they met. Auburn is a family, and we open our arms to everyone.

Being in Auburn as a student is a whole new experience but one that I wouldn’t trade for anything. The Auburn experience is just that an experience. No amount of words, phrases, or excellently worded essay can describe the tailgating, the rush you get when screaming with everyone else in the stadium, or how good Toomer’s Drug lemonade is, no words can describe the Auburn football experience.