Bigger than me: Alumna remembers first game day
The 2015 football season is days away and the UGA Alumni Association couldn’t be more excited! Many alumni look back fondly on their first game day experience at UGA, what it was like to wake up and find campus covered in a sea of red and black. Today, we are featuring an article from alumna and middle school teacher Rebecca Hendrix (BSED ’08, EDS ’14) wrote to teach her students about the concept of theme.
Lonely. Very lonely. Will I make it here? Do I fit in here?
“So, what are you going to wear to the football game on Saturday, Becca?” asked the pretty girl, Leigh, who lived across the hall from me in Creswell. I thought it was a really silly question. In my mind, football equated to hot dogs, hamburgers, sweat, shorts and T-shirts, and an all-around laid-back, exciting time.
“Um, I don’t know, I guess a Georgia shirt and shorts?” I didn’t have a creative answer to this one. Honestly, I hadn’t put that much thought into it.
“I heard that a lot of girls dress up for the games. I heard that they wear dresses and skirts and stuff,” mentioned Kimberly, another Creswell resident. Our group on the hall was a varied one, a mixed hodge-podge of ladies from all over the country, each very individual, but yet, somehow the same.
“Seriously? I would never have thought that! Gosh, I don’t even like dressing up for church.” My response tried to shake off the fact that I was actually very nervous about the game on Saturday. This would be my first college football game, and I was beyond excited. But this whole what-to-wear debate was just a smaller example of the larger issues I had faced during my first three weeks living on campus at UGA. I felt as if college was the middle school of my up-and-coming adult life. I didn’t know anyone, as I had come as the only person from my high school. I was trying to figure out how to not get lost every day on the thick and twisted bus routes. And now, I was going to have to worry about wearing the wrong thing to a football game?
“I guess I could wear this black skirt I have, and I have a red tank top. That should be OK for the first game. But I’m not wearing heels. No way! There are too many hills; my feet will die!” We agreed in our little group that flip-flops were a definite must; I knew I could splurge on a pair of Georgia flip-flops I had seen at the bookstore just a couple of days ago.
Rebecca A. Hendrix (BSED ’08, EDS ’14) is a sixth grade English/language arts teacher at Ashworth Middle School in Calhoun, Georgia. She is also currently pursuing an Ed.D. in school improvement from the Univerisity of West Georgia. Ms. Hendrix enjoys writing about her various experiences at UGA, particularly to share the importance of higher education with her students.
