Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/195

 "I was a freshman and desperately homesick," an upperclassman confessed to me not long ago. "Everything was new and strange to me; the big buildings confused me; and the thuosandsthousands [sic] of students running here and there not one of whom I knew seemed to isolate me more than ever. I was a stranger, and the college meant no more to me than a great big factory might have done. I did my work because there was nothing else to do.

"There was a football game early in November, and I wandered out mechanically to the field. As the game progressed my interest was aroused. The team fought hard, but luck seemed going against us. Then suddenly Pogue broke away with the ball, dodged the man next to him, shook off a half dozen others, and made a run across the field for a touchdown. All my indifference was gone. Ten thousand people were on their feet and my hat was off, and I was yelling wildly as I alternately hugged and pounded the man next to me. I thrilled with a new feeling. It was my college and my team, and I had a part and a share in every building and every tree on the campus. It was the birth in me of college spirit."

Sometimes the feeling may lose the intensity which one has in youth. Time and distance and absorption in the strenuous duties of life which come to most of us separate us from the associations and the spirit of college life; new interests