This is embarrassing to admit in a decidedly public forum, but here goes nothing: I still own a UCLA sweatshirt back at home. Maybe more. I might even have UCLA underwear lying around somewhere.
Go ahead, let the french formulate in your mental speech bubble, but hear me out: I would never dream of wearing them again. Not like some people on campus.
I didn't burn those particular artifacts upon coming here because I grew up a Bruins fan.
I don't come from a long lineage at any alma mater, but my uncle did go to UCLA. I went through adolescence singing the fight song with him in the car.
In middle school, when we used to have cutesy USC vs. UCLA dress-up days, 86 percent of my hometown would be decked out in cardinal and gold. Not I.
I proudly wore my UCLA hoodie and put my heart and legs into the traditional tug-o'-war competition. USC always won. It was the football boys. And for that, I hated USC even more.
But those days are long gone.
I've kicked the pole on the way to football games, tailgated in McCarthy Quad with alumni, screamed my lungs out at basketball games, spent an unfortunate amount of money in the bookstore and toiled away in Leavey at 4 in the morning. Safe to say I'm a Trojan now.
Better late than never, right?
That's why something has been bothering me a lot lately, and it's high time I express it.
I hate seeing Notre Dame and UC Berkeley sweatshirts around campus. It bugs me seeing Yale and Harvard sweatpants blurring by on bikes. I can't stand the occasional (are you serious?) UCLA shirts.
Two days ago, my cousin, who attends the University of Pennsylvania, visited. The weather was exquisite - sunny, cloudless and breezy - and the perfect day to show her I made the right choice after all.
In the middle of my wannabe-tour-guide spiel about USC, I gloated with the requisite "Yeah, if USC were a nation, we'd be fifth in gold medals behind China."
Three seconds later, we walked by a few of my friends, including one decked out in Yale sweatpants and another wearing an Oxford sweatshirt.
"Why do your friends wear stuff from other schools?" she asked incisively.
Damn. I wonder the same thing all the time. Don't you?
Granted, one sick day, I did wear my mom's sweatshirt with "University of Washington" emblazoned blatantly on its front. Of course, that day I saw all the people I didn't want to see me in said sweatshirt.
It was like walking a day in Hester Prynne's miserable shoes; everyone stared. And I, thankfully, learned my lesson: Don't wear other schools' paraphernalia.
Clothing obviously is an expression of yourself, but seeing how we all chose to affiliate ourselves with 'SC for the rest of our lives, is it really appropriate to cheapen Trojan pride by branding ourselves with other schools?
The worst thing is that prospective freshmen walk around campus daily, taking tours or staying over for scholarship interviews. What does it say about our school if they intermittently see people walking around with Texas baseball caps, or if their very own host is wearing Cal sweatpants to bed? Not much, come their acceptance letters from those schools in three weeks.
I found a Facebook group the other day titled, "You go to USC. Why are you wearing that shirt?" Oh, I joined all right. We're 76 strong and growing. This is a manifesto telling you to join the movement.
There are always affiliations and first loves you can never let go of. I will always worship John Wooden, but Tim Floyd's my main man now.
It's understandable if you pull out the Michigan shirt when watching a game - at home with your parents. Not so much when it's the T-shirt you select as good luck for your bio midterm.
As with anything, sometimes it's better to tuck away certain remnants of our past.
Namely, the hideous baby blue sweatshirt hiding in the back of my closet. It's staying there, and your stuff is welcome to join.
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Blessing Waung is a print journalism freshman from Palos Verdes.
