After last nights loss to UNC, my phone exploded. People ranging from Florida to California to my hometown city of Traverse City, Michigan were blowing me up (humble brag) congratulating us on our run in this years NCAA tournament. As a journalist, it is absolutely impossible to describe word for word what makes being a bobcat so great, but let me give it my finest efforts. All of my friends are business majors, and this is simply what my role is throughout this unreal city. So let me attempt to put a smile on all of bobcat nation.

OU? Oh yeah.

1. Athens, Ohio is home.

Everybody else I’ve ever talked to that doesn’t go here, describes their home as where they grew up, and where their parents are. Not here. People at OU describe going home as going back to Athens. I’ve seen hundreds of tweets (@VincentVanFlow) from winter and summer breaks that explain how badly they want to go back home. When I visit other schools, I miss how homey this city really is. From north campus to south campus its a 15 minute walk if you aren’t in shape. Where I am currently sitting writing this, I could come back in 5 minutes with Chinese food for under five dollars. The atmosphere here never seems real. The only time people even argue here is when Crystal gets out of line and the argument over whether Sigma Pi is better than Pike erupts (rush Pi Kappa Phi). There is no doubting that every person who goes to this school is in their most comfortable state when they drive in off the interstate and see that stadium: Peden Stadium. That is when you know you are here. Of course, you have only gone to one football game, and thats because it was on ESPN 2 and you left after the first half because you lost your buzz, but it’s still the landmark that puts that OU smile on your face.

2. Our unreal excuses to party.

Okay, so I understand that whether it’s TGIF or Saturday, almost every college throws their ragers. But here? We take any excuse and find a way to make it into an uptown fiesta. Green beer day is a perfect example. This day party was thrown on a Wednesday more than a week before St. Patty’s day. Our entire campus went uptown to get sloshed because the beer was simply dyed a different color. After we lost last night, I died a little inside. I was ready for the biggest riot this town had ever seen, but what I witnessed had me cheesing. Everyone was just so damn proud. We are a school that knows we aren’t known for our athletics, yet everyone pulled together and toasted to the most improbable run that no one outside of these borders could have predicted. We had faith in DJ, we had faith in Offutt, but most of all – we had faith in this school, and this city. Coach Groce I beg you, don’t leave us!

3. Nightlife.

Where else do you find over 20 bars in two blocks? Whatever clique you desire to be around, there is a designated spot that was created to fulfill those needs. There’s a hockey bar, rugby bar, football bar, basketball bar, greek bar, etc. If you wake up and say, “hey, I want to go get down with DJ Cooper (I’m shouting you out all day my dude)” I can tell you exactly where to find him. But it doesn’t end uptown. Spring corner is upon us, and while most college students are losing it about how they lost their internship due to a tweet (oh shit, that was just me), Ohio U is ready for the greatest ten weeks a college student can ask for. Gorgeous weather, beautiful women, bowling class, and the fests. Oh the fests. Our school is known for Halloween, and that is a proven fact, but ask any OU student what is the best part of the school year, and they will tell you the fests. On Halloween, we get hundreds of jagoffs who come and disrespect our campus. Yes, there are hundreds of arrests every year on that glorious day in late October, but usually only about 30% are OU students. The fests are our time, and when people visit then, they tend to respect our campus. Well, except for when we set shit on fire, but hey, if Manny can be Manny by intercepting a throw to the cut-off man… than that’s just OU students being OU students. We have two mindsets: class and partying. But definitely not in that order.

4. We actually have really good academics here

I have been focusing on solely the point of our abilities to party, and to all of the corporate folk out there that probably didn’t make it to this point in the article because you have already thrown my transcript out the window, I apologize. But to all you yinzers out there that continued to read on, may God bless you today. The schools of journalism, business, and aviation are all unbelievably prestigious. You don’t believe me? Watch your roommate go through the 8 am cluster, and then show a little more respect. The only phrase I hear more here than “I have to go meet with my group” is “I’m going uptown.” Our aviation school, while I know there aren’t many in the United States, is one of the greatest. It has been around since 1939, and has produced an absurd amount of commercial pilots. So next time you are sitting in row 35 and look out your window for a nice view and see the engine, realize that there is a chance that the man who has your life in his hands studied at Ohio University. Now I don’t want to toot my own horn since I’m in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, but by checking a few websites, were on average ranked the fifth best journalism school in the entire country.

All I’m saying President Roderick J. McDavis is that if you look beyond all the aspects that our school is “known for,” you will see an academic program that is eventually set up for us to succeed. But considering I’m a hard six male in the journalism school, I’ll practice right now what I’ll probably be saying after I graduate. “Do you want fries with that?”

5. The People

This one is unbelievably hard to explain. Well, no it’s not. I’m just imagining the look on the peoples faces who don’t go here that are thinking to themselves “I bet the people here are better.” Hear me out though sweetheart. I live 600 miles away from here, I came here knowing absolutely no one. Yet the people of this school embraced me immediately as one of their own. How many times have you walked into a party and didn’t know a soul, and then got asked who you knew in the party, you said nobody, and they kicked you out? Well if you go to OU the answer there is zero. How many times have you walked into a kegger and paid to drink? If you go to OU the answer there is zero. It’s a respect thing. When you are a freshman and sophomore, you drink for free, unless you are helping to throw the party, in which case you chip in for the beverages. In return, when you are a junior and senior, you buy and let the underclassman drink for free. It’s a system that I have never seen at any other school. Everything is based on respect, and the students that go to The Ohio University understand that as they progress through their years of paradise. If you are visiting, you will never feel more accepted anywhere else but here. And if you go here, your character rises immensely.

…….

……..

…….

…..

Bobcat nation: I salute you. Once again: OU? Oh yeah.