Yeah, I know, I haven't written in this blog for the entire month. I'm kind of embarrassed by it, actually. I've had a lot of ideas but I suppose this month has been a bit rough for me personally. Le sigh. Motivation, where are you?
Anyway, as many of you know, today was the day of the long-anticipated Michigan v OSU football game. To be honest, I've only been to one football game in my life, and I'm not really super into football ... but even I had to watch this one. Of course, I wanted the Wolverines to crush the Buckeyes, and that is completely understandable. Wanting your team to win (wow, I am revealing much more information about me than usual in this post) is an absolutely normal response.
Having apathy towards your team is another response. A few years back, Michigan was doing terribly in terms of football ... and I didn't care about football. Whatever, right? No use wasting my energy over something I'm not even really interested in if the team I am behind is doing terribly.
So, I guess in my own personal definitions of team spirit, I do not have any true team spirit. And, I'm okay with that. I don't really care about football that much. Of course, I am in love with the university right now, but that's it. I do have school spirit, but I don't care about football.
Anyway, as expected, Facebook exploded today as soon as the game was over. Most people were really thrilled that Michigan had won, but others ... not so much. To any normal person, winning for the first time in eight years would be absolutely ecstatic, wouldn't it? But I guess for others, it's just a larger sign that Michigan is not as good at football as OSU.
In the grand scheme of things, how football teams play doesn't really matter... but to say that a team's wins or losses cannot be personal to anyone who isn't on the team is simply false, in my opinion. People have personal ties to things they do not create and aren't a part of, and this is just a fact. Just a few months ago, everyone was wailing over Harry Potter, claiming that it was one of the integral pieces of their childhood and that it was very personal to them--but of course none of these people authored the actual work or worked on the film or whatever else.
Here's how I really feel: I'm okay with positive team spirit, or highly tense rivalries. I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with pseudo-bandwagoners like me who just care about the team when they're doing well. What I am not okay with is other people being sore losers or just being negative or whatever else. I am not okay with disrespect, wherever it comes from. I absolutely CANNOT stand it when people say that the only reason people go to Michigan State is because they couldn't get into Michigan. Even though that may be true for some of their students, that is an incredibly rude and derogatory thing to say. I'm sure these people are not happy with what happened to them in the end, so why rub it in their faces and make them more upset? I cannot stand all those profane t-shirts out there saying "Buck the F*ckeyes" or whatever else. I think those are incredibly immature.
I am also incredibly upset at people who always wince at me when I tell them that OSU is one of my top choices for medical school, or those who say that they are going to be really upset with me if I go. This includes many of my friends, and even my boyfriend at times. This I really cannot stand. My decision to go to school has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with football. It is my personal choice or it is the luck of the draw, but it says nothing about me with regards to personal worth.
I am also not okay with the hazing and bullying that comes with these rivalries. Someone should not be treated differently because of the school they went to ... I cannot tell you how many stories I've heard of people keying cars because they see a rival football team's sticker, hazing students from another team when they visit campus, or even a school's varsity baseball team spitting on the opposing team's marching band. That is just not right. We are all adults, and we should not be acting like little b*tchy children over sports.
I just don't understand the point of all of this negativity that comes with all of this positive love and team support.
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