Life changing event!

It is drawing closer, I can sense it--I can sense it the way you can sense someone watching you from behind. Each day I grow more anxious. I can feel the knots in my stomach moving closer to the base of my throat and I swallow loudly, even now, hoping to suppress the growing tightness in my chest. This time of year, late summer, always brings on this antsy, itch-I-can't-scratch, time is dragging on, sort of feeling. What might be the cause of this unusual behavior?

It is almost COLLEGE FOOTBALL TIME! It is that time of year when it is ok for grown men to cry and sweet old ladies to punch the lady next to them for wearing the wrong color or cheering for the wrong team. You may think I'm crazy--one too many sleepless nights, a few too many chocolate brownies for breakfast. But let's be honest, who can ignore the feeling you get watching throngs of excited fans walk into a college stadium during a fall afternoon. The best is when the sun is just beginning to lower in the sky and the autumn leaves are shinning in the dull light. The air is crisp and so electric that the hair on your arms stand up, you almost can't help but run to your seat--even though you are an hour early--because you just can't wait to see the green of the field. The smell of grilling burgers hangs sweet and heavy in the late afternoon air and you feel the swell of pride as the band beats out your fight song. Complete strangers stand in unison, chanting as your team screams confidently out of the tunnel. It is a religious experience.

I've teared up a few times when the fight song is sung or an incredible, unbelievable, almost impossible catch is made. The best is watching the shear, uninhabited joy that grown men get from seeing messes of pads and helmets crunch together with jarring force. There is something to be said of the effort athletes give to their craft, the sacrifice, energy and soul with which they work and the simple pleasure derived from doing it well. Kids rightfully worship 19-25 year olds like they were war heroes and to those kids, watching those men exert every once of strength left on that field of battle, they are! College football is every metaphor, every cliche, every emotion, every everything. If you have never been to a game, a college football game played not for money or endorsements but for the sheer glory of the fight--REPENT NOW--go, cheer, let loose, eat great food, be inspired, learn to truly feel. It is an experience all it's own!

You can sense it can't you...it is coming and you will never be the same again!