This is Freedom

WE LOST!!! 32-19 >:o    <----- that's an angry face btw. lol



(^ I didn't take this btw ^)
Oh well, at least our school is better :-P

Here's an interesting article about the rivalry that I found: http://www.autumnspectacle.com/traveling-trophies.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monon_Bell   (< someone updated this with a quickness)


Game Day pics to come once I get back to the room and find my camera cord.

Recap

 Woo! It's been a little while, but i'm back. Things got really hectic around here for a while, but that's just life at DePauw. What else can you expect from one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in america? Oh well...

Since I've been gone a lot of things have happened on campus. We recently had our ArtsFest and this years theme was Arts & Power.
 

I must say that this was by far one of our better years for the week! We had world renowned artist and DePauw Alumni, William "Bing" Davis, come to campus and talk to young artists about his experience at DePauw as well as how to expand upon their own art. There was another symposium with Sonja Hinrichsen, an installation artist, a film screening of V for Vendetta, and HUGE inflatable sculptures all around campus!

There was a big Ice Cream cone, a rubber duck in Bowman Park, a giant blue squid in front of Peeler and at one point on top of Julian, a boxing glove at the Women's Center, a sea anenome by the Lily Center, a giant couch on top of Peeler, boobs (yes boobs) in front of Emison!







We also had our Old Gold football game, with DePauw winning of course! 

Keeping it moving.

We are getting close to one of the most anticipated weekends at DePauw. This is hands down, easily, the most exciting weekend to hit this campus. The weekend starts off with the Varsity Swim Team, who by the way recently beat Wabash 200 to 100 Wednesday, swimming against Centre College at the Lily center pool at 7:00pm. Immediately following is the Fabolous and Asher Roth concert held by Union Board in the Lily center starting at 9:00pm. For those who may not know, Fabolous is a hip-hop superstar with hit singles, Holla Back Youngin', Throw it in the Bag, Can't Deny It, Into you, Breathe, Make Me Better, and My Time (which was featured in the opening sequence of America's Best Dance Crew) 








There will be an official after party following the concert hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

However, all of these things pale in comparison to the main event of the weekend. 

THE MONON BELL GAME! 
 
This si the time of the year when campus erupts with Tiger Pride! This year we will be hosting the game at Blackstock Stadium and our team is looking better than ever! We're playoff bound and are going to destroy those Wallies   (It's all friendly competition though) This year will be one of the largest crowds that DePauw has ever had! The tickets sold out in record time this year, both at DePauw and at Wabash!

I am so looking forward to this game! I went my freshman year, the year that we reclaimed the bell! I have never been so proud to be a DePauw student. We won that game with a 49 yard field goal kick by Jordan Havercamp with 4 seconds left on the clock! It was amazing! It made sports center highlights, which is a phenomenal feat for a school best known for it's academics and not necessarily it's sports team. I somehow managed to snag TWO tickets too! This is going to be a great game!

 Mascots shaking hands before the game


DePauw emerging victorious with the bell held high!











I'll be back soon with more updates and more things going on at DePauw. Until then, stay classy.

 First of All (had to plug the fraternity :P), Happy October!



As you know this kicks off the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! That means that sometime later I should be posting pictures from around campus of the different events going on to raise awareness. For now here's a link to the Susan G. Komen website (http://ww5.komen.org/), designed to raise awareness and earn funds for Breast Cancer research and development. 




















 


























Moving right along though, this weekend also marks off Old Gold Weekend. 

I'm really excited about this weekend! It's basically DePauw's homecoming and we have A LOT of stuff going on this weekend, including the game, the parade, the first annual campus bonfire, President Casey's birthday, tailgating (WITH FREE CORN!!!!), and some other stuff that I really can't remember. 







Man I love it here. It's just something that's been floating in the air recently that's just made campus that much more lively. I don't know if it's the impending weekend, Sigma Chi's 150 year celebration on campus, this last weekend of Parent's Weekend, my little sibs (a mentor program started by AAAS *the Association of African-American Students* that provides underclassmen with upperclassmen guides that mentor and build friendships with them to help African American students feel more comfortable on campus) or the Free Hugs that the men of Alpha Phi Alpha were going around giving out. Anyway something has really been going on on campus that has made me fall in love with it all over again.

Looking back on my time at this wonderful institution I can easily say that it's been fun. Though I'm not leaving this year, I can only imagine that it's really going to hurt to have to say farewell to Good Ole DePauw. I'm going to miss the late night study sessions that magically turn into random journeys through Greencastle, exploring all of the hidden caves of wonder, the intellectual conversations that range from Uganda to Peace in the Middle East, to transcendentalism, to which pizza place is the best on campus. Then there are the little moments that I really start to look back on. Like falling asleep on the lawn in the middle of the day only to be woken up by the President of the school gently nudging me awake. The hours spent sitting in my room lazily wasting away the day. The Pomegranate Limeade Odwallas, that random orange flower in a bed of yellow tulips. All of these little Indiana college quirks.

I love it here. Trapped in this little middle of nowhere Indiana bubble. Where the top minds in the country come to meet, exchange courtesies and then continue about their day. Here in one of the top colleges of Indiana, one of the top private universities in america and in my opinion the best private liberal arts schools in the world, I've found freedom.

So I've been spending the better part of this week compiling a collection of photos! I'm so excited. There have been so many things going on on campus this week. It was Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.'s week of events. They are a black greek letter organization belonging to the National Pan-Hellenic Council founded at Howard University. But I'll explain this whole concept later. There was an awareness concert held in Bowman Park by a local band, Sound Migration featuring K-Flo! AND it's just been gorgeous weather :D. It's times like these especially that really make you appreciate your time in college. 

Ok so without further ado here are the pictures.


A Permanent sculpture by world renown artist Patrick Dougherty. Dougherty is an environmentalist sculptor. To see more of his work visit. (http://www.stickwork.net/)

 Beautiful beautiful East College. The center point of DePauw University and one of the most photogenic places.


I love when the flowers are like this. They're all over campus but these were taken by Gobin Church. 


A series of photos of DePauw's varsity senior diver, Adam, diving...well not really, we were just joking around.

 Big beautiful Roy O. West Library. Interesting fact: there are absolutely no materials in the library on Marilyn Monroe.


The weather has been so amazing. Here is some guy long boarding near Harrison and East college. I got him coming from the boulder and hitting this amazing slide.


The beginning of Burkhart Walk and more importantly the entrance to DePauw, voted one the best liberal arts colleges of Indiana. 


The HUB, meeting all of your dining needs since its conception.




And so concludes this mini tour of DePauw. I'll be back soon with more photos and more stories.

 I should probably introduce myself to you shouldn't I?

My name is Patrick Springer. I'm a junior English Writing major and Studio Art minor. I'm from St. Louis, Missouri and my favorite color is blue. My past times, those rare times when I'm not doing homework, include, but are not limited to, swimming, diving, photography, sculpting, writing and random forms of nonsense. I like dogs, hate butterflies and I'm terrified of ladybugs. I think that covers everything. Let's see...name, major, year, hometown, hobbies... yeah, that's about it. But back to the real purpose of this blog and maybe I can help explain the name a bit more.

My intended purpose for this blog is to record and document my time here in one of the top liberal arts colleges in America and undoubtedly the best liberal arts college of Indiana. There'll also be random and hopefully interesting facts about DePauw, stories, and a lot of photos. 

My blog is called This is Freedom, because when I look back on my time here, I can't describe it any other way than being free. And I'm an English Writing major so that says a lot. I'm literally a walking lexicon of adjectives and figurative language and freedom is the best word that I could think of.

But I digress.

Looking back at the last two years have been the most intense periods of self-exploration that you could possibly ever imagine. 

I've discovered some things about myself that I never could conceive.

They say that most of your learning in college happens outside of the classroom and this could not be anymore true. The college environment itself facilitates self-exploration, but DePauw, in particular, encourages it both inside and out of the classroom. Primarily because of their small classes, as cliche as that might sound.

We have some tiny classes. I'm talking classes of 6-10. This setting really starts to develop into a family unit. And, with all families there are bound to be arguments. Strangely enough though, professors encourage arguments, and openly welcome most forms of disagreement. This is intended to challenge you and push you past a common plane of thinking. Why do you think our motto is "Uncommon Success?"Common thinking results in mundane accomplishments. 

DePauw really is a place to discover yourself. It's really a liberating place. hahaha liberation on a liberal arts campus. haha funny? no... a little? *crickets* 

....awkward silence....

Yeah so DePauw....pretty cool place. 

I like it.

This is Freedom.

This is the anxious embrace of fall nights free from parents, spent lazily on the lawn, reclining in the cool embrace of the Indiana breeze. This is the pinnacle of self awareness, the height of exploration, the exhilarating breath of fresh air from the top overlooking the rest of the world. Welcome to your new playground! Welcome home! Welcome to college!

This, my friends, is what we call Freedom. This is DePauw.