Saturday, October 7, 2017, I woke up with excitement and anticipation in my heart. It was game day, my first home game day of the season thanks to Irma. We hadn’t been doing well on the field so far, but I was at my peak ‘Nole fan because we were playing the University of Miami, one of our biggest and most hated rivals.
The game was the crowning jewel of Miami hate week, and we had a seven-year streak to uphold. I got to the stadium, painted up some friends, got a front row seat, and the wait began. Finally, it was 3:30 p.m., Renegade and Chief Osceola had a flawless show, the ball was kicked, and we were in business.
The game was four hours of stress, praying, cheering, booing, jumping, cursing, pleading, chopping, and chanting. There were hard times (any time Miami scored/did anything helpful to themselves), there were great times (Cam Akers bumping over UM defenders, the hysterical “CNAES” mishap, the ‘Noles actually making plays happen). It was an amazing game and with six seconds left, Miami had the ball and everything changed with a shady touchdown.
Six. Seconds. There was silence in the Seminole sections of the stadium, no one could believe we had just lost. I couldn’t make my body move as I tried to comprehend the fact that I had to leave Doak after Jimbo Fisher’s first ever loss to Miami.
My friends and I walked out, jumped in a fountain (just FSU things anyone?) to drown our sorrows, and decided we needed food.
In the midst of all this, I got a few texts from friends, family, acquaintances, saying they’d seen me on TV! As I’m usually on TV thanks to the front row seating streak I have going at Doak (shout out to the Checkered Boys’ tradition of getting to the gates two hours before they open two hours before kick-off) I didn’t give it much thought and my phone died on the way to dinner.
An hour and a half later, I’m finally home and plug my phone into the charger. A few minutes later when it turns on, it starts buzzing like crazy and I’m getting a call from one of my best friends (who, consequently, goes to UM) with a bruised ego, I answer the call, preparing myself for the inevitable trash talk to come.
Instead, I’m met with two of my friends on a conference call screaming that I’ve become a meme and that I’m trending on Instagram and Twitter. What?
With a growing sense of dread, I look up the icky UM hashtags my friend told me to search for and, to my horror, there’s my face! My face looks like I could have been featured in the movie Kill Bill, I’m doing what I’ve come to find out is a classic ‘I can’t believe this just happened’ pose ESPN likes to call the Surrender Cobra, and there are words surrounding the picture mocking FSU.
The rumors were true, I had become a meme. And not only had I become a meme, I had become a University of Miami meme. A Seminole fan’s worst nightmare.
By the next 24 hours, I was in an Instagram video posted by SportsCenter and ESPN College Football official accounts, Bleacher Report tweeted out my picture and got thousands of likes. The pictures had circulated in every single group chat I am a part of. I went to Blaze with some friends and the guy behind the counter recognized me the internet.
A few days later, as the hype began to die down and I accepted the idea that thousands of people have seen my face of dismay and despair, I grew to find my sudden meme status as extremely comical, and I’m kind of proud of it. This is just another thing to add to my resumé. I have a fun new answer for the inevitable “share a fun fact about yourself” icebreaker games I face every few months. And Ellen, if you happen to find yourself short on guests for your show, I can clear my schedule.
