When you come to OU and Norman, you enter a sort-of bubble. You realize you are getting older, you become a sophomore then a junior then a senior, but it never really hits you. Well, as a senior staring at graduation (in about 20 days), I can tell you that it hits you. The feeling that you may have to leave Norman, your friends, the place that started out as college and became home, all hits you like a train crossing by The Mont.

I can still remember that first day. It was at Camp Crimson, Purcell Family, Monnet Small Group. It was my first chance to really be at summer camp, but this was not just camp. This was an introduction to the next four years of my life. Those people I met at camp are still some of my best friends on Earth. We all “dropped our cool” and found friends, and a part of ourselves that we hadn’t known yet.

Soon it was August 2011 and I was moving all my stuff into Walker 6E, and I was terrified to be completely honest. My room had this picture perfect view of the stadium, the roommate and I got along, and my suitemates were some of the coolest guys I had ever met. That first night, I went fountain hopping, stayed up way too late, had the first (of many) cheese breads from Papa John’s. I knew that I made the right decision, and that I was going to fall in love while I was here. Then I had my first Sooner football game, and I’ll admit that when the intro video came on, I was crying. We sang the fight song, and the alma mater, and I had never really felt like I belonged to a huge family until then. That first semester was hard, I was homesick, I saw all my friends that went to A&M and UT having the times of their lives. I wanted to leave, to transfer, but I knew deep down that I would regret leaving because I hadn’t truly experienced OU yet.

Sophomore year and junior year flew by. I participated in Soonerthon. I changed my major a few (too many) times. I made friends and lost them. We all grew up in a way that none of us could have expected. We had our hearts broken, we failed a class or two, and we decided that college was not as easy as we thought it would be. Above all, we found out that our school was the one connecting the dots. We were bleeding Crimson and Cream and died for the idea of “Live on University.” Nothing felt real. We were separated from the newness of freshman year and did not want to think about senior year.

Then like a flash senior year comes. You realize that are beginning to have a lot of “lasts.” I gave my last tour as an OU Tour Guide the other day, and fought back tears the entire time. I ate at the Caf, where I had many times before, for the last time. I said goodbye to people in Student Life that have given me so much time over the last few years. It started hitting me that I was taking my last steps around the University that I love so much. You push these thoughts away for most of your last semester here, but at some point it is going to creep up on you, and it finally has crept up on me.

OU never leaves you because from that first time you step on campus to the last time you do, OU makes a mark. So much of the person I am today is because of the people I have met here. I formed opinions and friendships that will last a lifetime because of this school. My heart is here just as much as I am. When I get old one day, I will look back at those football games or late nights and realize that I had an experience to share with complete strangers. OU invites you into a family the moment you get that acceptance letter and it never lets you go. For that I will never be able to repay OU. The opportunities I have gotten here, the people who have become my mentors, and the family that I chose will never leave my memories. I love OU, and that will never change, no matter where I am.

Dalton Brasington

Senior

Political Science

Spring, TX

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