Love and Florida State Football

Yeah, so it’s been a sweet, hot minute since I posted a thing. For many reasons and not super clear reasons (yet), I’ve just been unable to transfer thoughts to words that seemed worthy of sharing. I’m praying for a breakthrough. But, today, I came across this little something I wrote last year to kick off my favorite season of the year… FSU Football Season! It got me excited and seemed to adequately express the reason for much of my (over-the-top) devotion to a school/team, while also giving some background and personal history one comes to expect from a blog. Hope it spurs you to explore and embrace all your “loves” more deeply, and that it ultimately enables you to see and love The Giver of those loves in a new and fresh light.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)
So here’s a little fun for the start of our favorite season… Florida State Football 🏈😘🏈
You know what I love? My Florida State Seminoles ❤💛 Yeah, I know the word gets misused, and I don’t love them like I love Jesus, or my family and friends, but I really, really, really like them. Like to the point of love. So, that’s basically love. And, here’s why…
I love how I grew up a Miami fan and always knew I was headed there, no question. I love how I met a boy who was at FSU and decided to follow him there (yeah, I just wrote that), but told my Dad I’d always be a ‘Cane, because that’s devotion, People. I love recalling how I felt during my first football game at Doak… the sea of Garnet and Gold, the sound of the War Chant from our Chiefs, the rush that came when Osceola rode out on Renegade to throw down that spear and how it was at that exact moment that I fell for FSU. I love remembering how hard it was making that phone call to let my Dad know I’d fallen for another team (still so painful, Dad).
I love the gorgeous red brick buildings and mossy covered, oak lined campus, with the grand fountain that welcomes each student, visitor, and newly Twenty-One year old, alike. I love how walking that massive campus simply felt like a large home you shared with 20,000 others. I love recalling how I used the library only one time. I love the way that boy I followed had a local sister who provided me a home away from home for five years, even after the boy and I amicably parted ways. I love all the memories made with great roommates, sorority sisters, and friends, either for the moment or a lifetime. I love how our lives revolved around set schedules of TV, class, work, fun, and food. To this day, I love Bagel Bagel and live bands and Bagel Bagel and Guthrie’s and Bagel Bag… oh, you get the picture.
I love remembering life on a shoe-string budget, the parking struggle, the never-ending 2 a.m. Guthrie’s line on Tennessee Street, walking in the freezing rain during one of those awful spring semester days, and even the difficult classes I barely passed (okay, I only had one of those and never went to class if it was cold/rainy. Whatever. I’m not one for a struggle. See lack of library use above.)
I love that Tallahassee is the place that gave me my first taste of real life. I love all the mistakes and heartbreak experienced there because it pointed me to a much deeper need. I love looking back on the very moment, in the club, when I first laid eyes on My Tall, Dark, Blue-Eyed, Ball Capped, Tank-Top Wearing Mr. Forever. (And, yes, Y’all, this man of mine even wore a hat and tank top, albeit as an undershirt where it belongs, that night, too.) I love how drawn I was to him and I love remembering how he was nothing like anyone who’d ever piqued my interest. I love recalling how hard it was to pique his interest and wondering why I was even wasting all my cool dance moves on someone who couldn’t appreciate them. I love that he was a Marching Chief with a quick wit, a body that could crush concrete, and a mind that could bend steel. I love thinking how many times our paths must have crossed prior, like during the games when my sorority sat right by his Chiefs, though likely not during all his hours in the library expanding that mind of his.
I love how he grew up also considering Miami for college because his father went there. I love wondering if I would’ve been as drawn to him in that band headdress and plumed hat as I was in his baseball cap that first night. I really love believing that I would have. I love that I get to wear that authentic Chief’s headdress like a boss for every game. I love remembering how we fought like a couple of mad hatters while falling in deep, ahemmm… like(??) during all of those two whole months before learning we had a little bun in the oven. I love how surprised and caught off guard we were by the news of that conception. I love how dumb two Smarties can still often be all these years later.
And, I love most of all, how what seemed like the worst mistake of our lives at the time became one of our two greatest blessings in life, thanks to a very faithful and loving God. I love knowing now how the story unfolds and that memories can be made sweet with time, God, and a really good pair of rose-colored glasses (which I may have lying around, if you need to borrow them). I love being able to share our Nole Pride with our little Mayew Tribe. And, I love how that Surprise Bun is now making his own memories at FSU and how he and his brother may eventually pass on all these same traditions. Well, maybe not all…
Simply put, Florida State has a piece of my heart. You can call it whatever you like, but I call it love ❤💛 Go NOLES!