dawgs til we die

We make sacrifices for the Dawgs. This weekend, the sacrifice was comfort. The day began with 12 UGA college students piling in and out of a five-seater Ford Explorer ...what we do to save a dollar for parking. Our hopes were high and we walked lightly, ready to face the eye of the Tigers (s/o to Katy Perry for her rockin' new song).

Tailgates on tailgates on tailgates... and Stephen and I proudly held up our signs as we walked by each and every one of them. Comments on our posters ranged everywhere from: "Hey, I'm a Clemson fan... and that's pretty funny" to "We LOVE Miley! We LOVE Miley!" Obviously Clemson fans yelled the latter comment as well.

It was a fun day. Full of tailgates and food and friends and new friends and rain... Just kidding, the rain part wasn't fun, but was still part of the day nonetheless.

Game time couldn't have come any slower, and the Dawgs needed us. So we were prepared to not lose our voices - and by prepared I mean we had a big bag of cough drops that we kept replenishing ourselves with every time the Dawgs were on defense. OOOOoooohhhhHHHH!

The game crept by, but the time on the clock ran out and our hopes were crushed before we knew it.

As I watched the orange swarm grow in the middle of Death Valley, a zombie exodus of red and black was happening all around me. Can't say I wasn't about to join the zombie march though. But for the moment, I sat there motionless.. head in my hands - defeated and hopeless.

I looked at my friend to my left - he was taking the Dawgs' loss a little harder than me.

We both looked pitiful; a much needed pep talk was in the works. We talked it about for a long while. But it wasn't until we said "this loss only hurts our pride" that we were able to overcome our sadness.

The perfect song began to play as we smirked about our epiphany - "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons. It only took a slight nudge of the elbow for both of us to recognize that we were about to take it to the next level.

No questions asked, we began dancing like fools in the top deck seating of Death Valley. And just when you would have thought that we had overcome our sadness, that we had taken the next step on our right feet, that we had conquered and defeated our bitterness towards Clemson. Nope... Just nope.

When I mentioned "the next level," I meant that I watched my game partner, Stephen, viciously rip up orange pom-poms in front of both UGA and Clemson fans while also informing the last stragglers in the stands that we (the Dawgs) are still on our way to becoming national champs. Although we looked ridiculous, my whole being became completely immersed in a mixture of satisfaction and joy.

Sure, we got some looks... some pretty weird ones if I'm being honest. But we left that stadium with our chins held high... proud to be Dawgs.