Jump on the school spirit bandwagon

Let's face it, Southern Miss. It's clear that I'm not the "athletic" type. In fact, I'm not even sure if I own tennis shoes. I'm certain that I only own one Southern Miss t-shirt, and that's the free one I received four years ago at freshmen orientation. Gold isn't my color.

When my roommate Kayla (yes, a woman) made me watch SportsCenter with her this past weekend, I asked her why the hell BSU was playing football on national television. Kayla is clearly the man in our relationship.

"It's Boise State University," she replied. I thought BSU stood for the Baptist Student Union. #embarrassed

As a super senior, I had never been to one college football game before Southern Miss played Birmingham at UAB. Since I had a press pass and didn't want our art director Justin Sellers to have to drive alone, I decided to take the four-hour trip with him in an attempt to write my first ever sports article. You guys have no idea what I endured. Let's just say that Justin Sellers' two favorite artists are Brantley Gilbert and Kid Cudi. Let's also say that he argued with me for an hour, insisting that Brantley Gilbert was a better artist than hip-hop superstar Missy Elliot. It was the longest trip of my life.

When I got to Birmingham, I was overwhelmed. I was wearing a green North Face jacket and a yellow bookbag. Coincidentally, these were UAB's colors. Whoops. While in the press box, I felt bored and thought it was too generic. I wanted to go sit with the USM fans. It was the best decision I've ever made. There were definitely more Southern Miss fans in the stadium than UAB fans. Even though we lost, I felt the hairs on my arms rise every time we scored or made a good play. I even got angry when we lost. I didn't know I cared that much about football. Who am I?

Then, it was time to go to Houston for the C-USA championship game. There was no way I was passing up a trip to go to The Galleria. I didn't apply for a press pass, so I was going just for the hell of it. However, Becca Morris suggested that Rachel Beech and myself disguise ourselves as press and sneak in the game. We walked through like we owned the place. Hair flip, y'all.

As I walked in, the pride I had for my college overtook my emotions. I caught myself jumping up and down and clapping every time USM made a touchdown. I purposely stood in the middle of Houston fans to see their reactions. Some woman turned around and asked me at one point, "Why don't you go over there and sit with your people?"

My reaction? "Because I just want to see the looks on your face when we win. Duh."

I also noticed that Houston fans have no sense of fashion. I've never seen so many scrunchies, cargo shorts and flare-legged acid wash jeans in my life. Apparently, everything is bigger in Texas. Bad fashion and poor attitudes are no exception to that festive little saying.

While the stadium was filled with red, we bled black and gold all over the Cougars. Sorry we're not sorry. The Golden Eagles glided over Houston on Saturday, winning the game 49-28. I had never been more proud yell, "Southern Miss to the top!" In fact, the first time I had ever yelled it was the night before at some tacky karaoke bar in downtown Houston called Glitter when we sang "Goodbye Earl" by the Dixie Chicks. We also may or may not have danced on tables and chairs yelling our famous chant. Don't judge us.

The moral of my story? School spirit is very important. It doesn't matter who you are, what you're about or what your major is. You chose Southern Miss just like I did. I find it to be ridiculous when people who attend one college cheer for another. Sorry guys, but you don't go to LSU. Bring your purple and gold tee back to Wal-Mart.

I was never a diehard football fanatic kind of guy. I don't care about ESPN. I don't know anything about the Saints except that one of their old players, Scott Fujita, loves the gays. In fact, the only other college football team besides Southern Miss that I have any kind of knowledge of is Oregon, and that's only because their uniforms have swagger and are amazing. However, it wasn't too late for me to learn that it's important to show school spirit. #SMTTT