Game Day Reflections

If I am ever asked, "Did you ever do anything stupid at USC?" I should hope that I would be able to confidently reply, "Nope!" Though, what I just did was pretty stupid...

For the first time in three years, a USC football game was sold out. USC vs. Stanford. Beat the Farm. Yada yada.

I had decided to go out with my dad and some family members for lunch, and he brought me back to campus around 2:30pm.

Kickoff is at 5pm.

We decide to go to Smart and Final so I could pick up some groceries. I didn't think it would be a good idea, since he had to go back to Chinatown to help my uncle clean out my grandma's apartment. But he insisted, so we went.

After getting the groceries, it was about 3:30pm. It took us half an hour to get from Smart and Final to the main gate, which just happened to be closed. The sole open gate was, allegedly, Gate 6. Which would mean that we'd have to go all the way around the block. So, I had to walk all the way across campus with bags of heavy groceries.

You would think that after all of that, I'd wise up and decide to stay inside my apartment.

As soon as I got to my room, I put away my groceries, changed my clothes, and headed out at about 4:30pm to pick up a book at Doheny Library.

I was pretty much fighting my way uphill, if hills smell a lot like beer and cigarette smoke. There were people milling about, and I had to weave my way halfway across campus, fighting against the river of people making their way to the Coliseum.

I made it to Doheny, only to find that the front entrance was completely blocked. Just great.

I walked around the side to the first set of doors I saw, but they were locked. Then I spotted a ramp, so I headed down and found that it led to the Cinema Library, so I made my way up to the Circulation Desk, where I waited a while before getting the book I needed. Then I tried to go out the way I came, but I couldn't get out the door! So, I walked all the way around and out.

As I made my way towards my dorm, I passed by more beer-and-smoke odors around the center of campus. A guy stood in the middle of the road, his handmade paper sign saying "I need tickets!" Others passed him, patting him on the back and saying, "Me too, man... Me too." Freakishly tall guys dressed like Tommy Trojan (complete with bare chests, capes, and funny helmets) were hanging around flirtatious girls (some were probably members of the USC basketball team).

And as I turned right into the Roski Fine Arts school, all the ruckus died down, and I contemplated what I'd seen. That is, until I was 50 yards from my apartment, when some drunken bro saw me wearing my 'SC jersey, yelled "Fight On!" and gave me a high five.

And that, ladies and gents, is the closest I've gotten to having a "real" USC Game Day experience.

...I'm pathetic.