Hawkeye Nation

On Fridays, we talk about community.  Such a comforting word—community.  The warm, fuzzy feeling of belonging somewhere.  I am lucky enough to feel a part of many different communities, many of which I have mentioned on this blog (my family, my friends, etc.).  But there is one community I have not mentioned yet:  the HAWKEYE community.

We are a die-hard, close-knit, fun-loving community.  We wake up on game day and open our closets and dressers to reveal a sea of black, gold, gray, white, yellow...and LOTS of Herky the Hawk.  We “suit up”, we grab our favorite people and our favorite drinks (Cherry Pepsi is my tailgating beverage of choice), and we settle in for the win.  Or sometimes the loss.  But either way, you can hear near and far… “we’re gonna fight, fight, fight for IOWA!”

And last week in particular, the fight song was running through my head.  Why, you ask?  Because my cousin made the ill-informed choice to marry a non-Hawkeye fan…in fact, a Michigan State fan.  And so the day of the Hawkeye-Spartan match up is anxiously awaited by me and Ryan (her husband).  Last year, amidst all of his smack-talk and all of his puke-green Michigan State clothes, I sat on the couch next to him as the Hawkeyes won. Sweet, sweet victory.

This year, last Saturday to be exact, I woke up with a smile on my face, a good feeling inside.  I put on my Hawkeye gear, head to toe, and then one by one I dressed each of my kids in black and gold. (Side note: win or lose, there is nothing as cute as my little baby girl in her Hawkeye tutu). We settled in on the couch at my grandma’s house, sans Ryan (I think last year’s teasing on my part was too much for him..he didn’t even show up this year), and rooted for our beloved Hawks.

It looked like it could go either way…there were a couple nail-biting moments, and jump-off-the-couch moments.  And then it went into overtime.  And then it went into a second overtime.  Seriously, my heart was pounding out of my chest. When we won, I almost didn’t believe it for a second…but we did! We won again! I immediately texted Ryan (among some of my other, Hawkeye-loving friends). He never responded.  In fact, I haven’t heard from him since then…hmm…

Anyhow, like I said, win or lose, we bleed black and gold in this house.  Always have, always will. My boys know all the words to the fight song (ask anyone at Walmart…they have heard it loud and clear in the carts, in the bathroom stall, just about everywhere…) and soon my girl will be singing it along with them.  Last week we won, and for me it was an even better win because of the inner-family rivalry.  But this week we lost, and we lost bad. But we are no fair-weather fans.

GO HAWKS.