The Florida State University in Tallahassee

I was thinking it's about time to blog about our beloved Alma Mater... What brought about this burning urge deep within me? Well, it's August and school starts in a couple of weeks... which also means, football season is around the corner... So, how's football related to our school, you ask? Well, FSU is to football... as sugar is to coffee !!! That's the simplest--yet closest--analogy I can make. But without first talking about Tallahassee, there IS NO WAY we can paint the picture more vividly...

Moving to Tallahassee was such a culture shock... especially for a 15-year old, who had left her dear friends back home and the big city life she was used to... To those of you who don't know, Tallahassee is such a small city--one of the quintessential small-towns of America! And the saying goes... "This is as American as Apple pie."

At first, I hated living here... because driving is a necessity! (I didn't start driving until my junior year)... so, the first 2 years of living here was torture!!! Everytime I went out, I had to either ask my parents for a ride or bum a ride from friends who were older. The public transportation system (AKA Tal-Tran) was so useless to me, since it was only covenient for those who live closer to downtown!!! We only have 2 big malls, so if you were a minor (under 18), you had limited activities for fun... That is, unless you play sports or are in a rock band or go to a high school party every weekend--which was definitely not my thing!

Well, this all changed my senior year in high school... when I had to choose which university to attend. That year, I received tons of mail from pretigious schools like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--the best engineering school in Florida who offered me $9,000 a semester on scholarships (which wouldn't have worked out, because one semester's tuition is about $15,000--books and dorm not included), Stanford University, UCLA, Boston University, Northwestern University, Georgia Institute of Technology (aka GA Tech), NYU (New York University), University of Florida (UF), University of Miami (UM), and of course, Florida State University (FSU)... All these schools offered me some sort of a scholarship, but I did get full scholarships to UF and FSU... This was my chance to leave Tallahassee, I thought... but something in me changed that year...

Sending in a college application here in America is as tedious as applying for a Microsoft job! First you have to pass the FCAT (for Florida), you must have had 2 years of foreign language in high school (I took French for 4 years), you must take the PSATs, and then the SATs or the ACT. In my case, I took the ACT because Math and Science are my strongest points, you must write 2 ORIGINAL papers per university (meaning, you can't just send in the same papers to different schools even if you yourself wrote them!)...

So, after the gruelling process of college application, I narrowed down my choices to UF and FSU... UF is in Gainesville, which is 2 hours from Tallahassee... and since I already knew what to major in (that is Computer Science-Software Engineering), I researched both schools and compared them... Through this, I found out that FSU had a much better Department of CS... so, I spent a lot of time at the FSU campus, getting to know my way around, since we have a huge campus! I started loving my life in Tallahassee and thought about the pros of staying here... i.e. no staying in a dorm, no out-of-state tuition, no driving back and forth to Tallahassee for breaks, no student loans, etc, etc...

My last year in high school, I was dating a football player and although, he had his mind set to going to UF, I still opted for FSU... I learned to enjoy the sport that year, not only out of boredom, but because of tradition... Tallahassee may be a small city, but it also is a football town!!! We have the best high school when it comes to football... (Lincoln High)... We have a lot of seniors from Lincoln commit to FSU... and many alumni who are now earning millions playing in the NFL!

Ruby Diamond Auditorium

But the summer after high school graduation, my life changed forever... I fell in love with the man who is now my husband... He was already in his third year at that time at FSU's School of Business taking Management Information Systems (which is sort of Computer Science for business). As we learned more and more about each other, I learned to LOVE football through him! Our love also blossomed at FSU, as we spent many memories around our beautiful campus (see pictures below--there are way too many pictures and buildings at FSU, so I can only post a few)... lounging around at the Oglesby Union--where students hang out... walking hand in hand to classes, meeting for lunch at the cafeteria, studying together at Strozier, getting coffee at our school's Starbucks, going cosmic bowling at Crenshaw with our friends, working out at Leach Athletic Center, tail-gating at FSU football games with his family... and just hanging out and loving every minute of it...
FSU Campus
One of the dorms at FSU
North Facade of Doak Campbell Stadium

The Baseball stadium

Main entrance of Doak Campbell stadium with statue of Chief Osceola and Renegade

Oldest Dorm at FSU

Strozier Library

Woodward Avenue

Math, Meteorology and Computer Science buildings

So, amid the canopy roads of Tallahassee, amid the small-town charm... the city comes alive and bustling in the Fall... when the people crowd at Gene Cox Stadium on Fridays to catch a good high school football match... and the whole downtown shuts off to give way to FSU football fans for the evening downtown get-down... then come Saturday, the entire city is on a party-mode, as cars are parked all around Doak Campbell stadium for the traditional Tail-Gate parties--where RVs camp out the night before, the booze aflowing, the pick-up trucks and SUVs loaded with coolers and finger-foods, little kids and adults throwing footballs, the aroma of steaks grilling in the air, the occasional ever-popular Seminole war-chant echoing across the vicinity coupled with THE HAND CHOP (another very popular FSU tradition), the loud thumping music spilling out of the Saloon nearby as drunk college kids set sofas on fire(?)... haha...

Chief Osceola with Renegade

And so, here we are again... in a couple of weeks, students, alumni, parents and friends would be coming back to Tallahassee almost every weekend, to witness another great FSU football season... And on Saturdays, you'll find us here (see below), along with 90,000 other fans... rooting for our beloved Alma Mater....... Go Seminoles!!!!!

The Seminoles Marching Chiefs