"Your name is Crimson?!" "Oh wow, is your middle name Tide?" "Wow, you really didn't have a choice in where you went to college did you?"

The questions above, plus many more are questions I've grown up hearing. They're normal questions to me now. I will always be forever Crimson. My mom prayed for twins, and was going to name him Tyde Bryant, and call him Ty. I made my first trip to Tuscaloosa at 6 weeks old. Big Al came to my 2nd and 3rd birthday parties. Coach Mal Moore and Kenny Stabler held me as a child. When I was around 3 years old, I wanted a sister named Bama. I consider Tuscaloosa to be my home away from home. My family has season tickets for football games. I could have gone to any college or university, but I felt most at home at The Capstone of Higher Education. I'm not here because of my name. I'm here because this is exactly where I want to be.

All throughout high school, I was asked what I would do if I received a full scholarship from another school, a school that wasn't the University of Alabama. I was unfazed, telling them "...you can't get a scholarship if you don't apply, and I'm not applying." I felt at home in Tuscaloosa, and after being here a semester, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

During sorority recruitment, some girls seemed to be amazed, and others seemed as though they didn't quite believe me. Before school started in the fall, I went on a river float with my boyfriend and a rushee for his fraternity looked at me, and introduced himself, and proceeded to ask me what my name was. I told him Crimson, and then he said "No, like what's your real name?" I've never been so frustrated with someone. We are friends now, don't worry. (Andy Spidle)

There have been quite a few people come up to me and say "Oh you're Crimson right?" It catches me off guard, but at least I have a name most people won't soon forget. In 3 and 1/2 years, I will no longer be a student at the University of Alabama, but Tuscaloosa will always be my home away from home. I will always be forever Crimson.