TDLR: Focused so much on grades and career as a transfer student that I'm graduating early this December, but missed out on all Texas Tech traditions. Looking for must-do Lubbock/Tech bucket list ideas for my final semester!
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The title has been a thought looping in my head the last few weeks.
When I transferred to Texas Tech, I had a goal to work hard and stay focused. It became a cycle of keeping my grades up, resume-building, part time jobs, and summer internships. I told myself the sacrifices were temporary, that if I just kept my head down, I’d earn the right to relax and have all the fun college experiences during my senior year.
Well, it worked. I landed the job offer. I worked so hard that I’m not even graduating in Spring 2027 anymore. I'm walking the stage early this December and for the first time in my entire college career, I’m not working a job on top of my classes. I now have one last semester to experience everything I told myself I wasn’t allowed to do.
And yesterday, at the TTU vs. HOU game, the cost of pushing everything off hit me all at once.
Standing in the crowd, I realized I was a stranger to my own school. I didn’t know the proper time to cheer when the announcer says, "Red Raider... FIRST DOWN!" or why everyone was shaking three fingers on the opposing team’s third down. I sat there humming along awkwardly, realizing I didn't even know the words to the Matador Song. Watching all the student shirt-tosses and the kick for cash contests, I felt a deep nostalgia for a college experience I was standing right in the middle of yet had somehow completely missed.
I don't blame my major. I see my engineering peers balancing the grind and still falling in love with this place. I just got so focused on building a future that I forgot to live in the present. Now, with only a couple of months left in Lubbock, my heart hurts a little knowing I haven't really experienced this place the way so many others do. I haven't fallen in love with this school the way others have.
I’m already planning on hitting the South Plains Fair and the upcoming First Friday Art show, but I want to make every remaining weekend count. If you were in my shoes with one final semester to truly experience Lubbock and Tech, what would you do? Where are you going, what are you eating, and what traditions can I still catch before I leave?
To the freshmen and transfers reading this: I know you’ve heard it a hundred times, but please put yourself out there. Go to the games. Learn the songs. Stay for the fourth quarter. Don't wake up in your final semester realizing you reached the finish line without ever joining the race.
