Maybe you’ve spotted her out walking around campus wearing what would be considered a perfectly coordinating Auburn game day outfit, complete with bright orange shoes and a temp AU logo tattoo and thought to yourself, “Whoa. She’s been on Pinterest.” Or maybe you heard her before you actually saw her because she had as many of the round Auburn inspo’d pin buttons that would possibly fit on the outside of her backpack—which was nonetheless orange and blue and outfitted towards the bottom with one of those furry tiger tails that deems you the human equivalent of Aubie and can find at any campus bookstore.
But wait, it gets better. Because it’s football season, you might see her on Jordan Hare’s gigantic jumbotron with her face painted orange and blue while wearing two of the many round pin buttons that were on her backpack during the school week, jumping up and down in her orange shoes yelling the cheer Auburn fans know as “Bodda Getta” and shaking a pom-pom like it’s a shake weight.
Do you know this girl I’ve described?
Right about now, you might be rereading some of this article, thinking I’m writing about you, and that precisely is what makes being a student here at Auburn University so special.
At Auburn, “the girl with too much spirit”—she doesn’t exist.
That’s right. This girl, the one who is undeniably spirited in her passion for Auburn, is not simply one individual. She’s in all of us here at Auburn University.
Before ever attending a “War Eagle Day” session and deciding that I would be attending Auburn University this fall, I felt Auburn’s spirit before I saw it. From family friends who are now Auburn alumni, to die-hard Auburn fans that I really didn’t know except for the fact that they were Auburn fans and knew I was considering attending Auburn in the future, to the initially “random” contacts I made on social media of guys and girls alike that were in the same position as I was in wanting to feel more of whatever this special feeling was that people at Auburn shared… each and every individual I spoke with had one commonality that I now know can be found in the Auburn Creed:
“…a spirit that is not afraid.”
Go to Toomer’s Corner, sit on Samford’s Lawn at sunset, or cheer alongside your roommate at an Auburn football game. Do all the Auburn traditions that you know of. You’ll find that what you heard from family, friends, and seemingly overenthusiastic Auburn fans to be true: Auburn really is a family like none other, indescribably special in that this family embodies one spirit and unites girls in being what can only be described as “an Auburn girl with too much spirit.”