I'm currently drowning in homework at Louisiana Tech while my friends from Baton Rouge are enjoying their Christmas break. I think to myself “Why didn’t I just go to LSU?” Then I remember Tech is my home--it’s the place that has my heart.

Growing up in Baton Rouge, I was destined to follow my family tradition and go to Louisnana State University, where I would end up with all my high school friends. I had it all planned out; what I didn’t have planned, however was falling in love with Tech. When applying for colleges I was encouraged to apply at other schools rather than just LSU, and to tour these schools . It was an October day when all my friends were getting ready to go to our senior homecoming, and I was driving four hours north to the small town of Ruston, Louisiana. My parents and I were going for Time Out for Tech, where we would tour the campus and attend a football game. It was then that I fell in love.

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Coughlin High School: My Alma Mater, My Home Forever

Now I know its no LSU football game with 96,000 fans in Tiger Stadium, but it was the Joe filled with 27,717 of Tech's most loyal fans. When the band played the Alma Mater, everyone’s index figures went up, and the stadium filled with the voices of alums, students, and all who loved Tech. This is when I knew in my heart this was the college for me. The day I got the letter saying that I was a future Bulldog is one I will never forget--it was the day I knew for sure that I would be going to the college that was the perfect fit for me.

August 2013 came only months later. The time to pack up my car and leave the only place I’ve ever called home, the only friends I ever had, and my family arrived. We made the drive four hours north to move to my new home. After setting up my room in Adams Dorm, my family went back to Baton Rouge, and I was left in a town where I knew only the couple friends from high school who made the same decision as I did. That is the day I told myself I would make Ruston and Tech my new home. A week later I joined a sorority where I met friends who have since become my family here at Tech. By the end of my first quarter of Tech, Ruston had officially become my home away from home.

Three years later, I still feel the same about Tech as I did that October day. Tech will forever be a place I will call home and know that the decision of not going to the college that so many of my family members did before me was the best decision for me. Every time I go to a Tech football game and hear the Alma Mater, I look around the stadium and see all fans with their index fingers high in the air. I hope some high school senior trying to figure out which college is best for them sees what I saw three years ago--that Tech is the place for them. I preach to everyone what my Alma Mater instills in all who pass through its columns: “Louisiana Tech I love thee, my Alma Mater, my Alma Mater; I will ever loyal be,to thee, my Alma Mater.”