After nearly two years of clinging to my coveted press pass, my glorious return to the student section of Jordan-Hare Stadium occurred this Saturday.
Aside from the mass crowds and loss of vocal chords, both of which were expected, the Auburn family I was huddled with seemed to be a bit more like the distant cousin who you don't want to associate with in public places.
While I realize that I may be generalizing the entire student body into one category of fan, the behaviors displayed in the student section were intolerable and frankly unAuburn.
After fighting through hoards of orange-and-blue clad fans, our seats were acquired after confronting several fans who were attempting to save half a row of seats.
First rule of the student section: no saving seats.
Learn it, love it, live it.
One, maybe. Two, your pushing your luck. Half a row of seats, no way.
Luckily, those fans seemed to understand and frankly were just waiting on someone to call them out because they posed no resistance in allowing us to sit there.
Congratulations, you thought you could cheat the system by placing shakers on the bleachers. Wrong.
The other row of seats in front of us got quickly occupied by a gaggle of freshman students who climbed over the railing quicker than a group of Bama fans packing into Walmart to see an undeserved BCS trophy.
While you may be thinking I am generalizing these students as freshmen, you are wrong.
I know they are freshmen because they wouldn't stop telling us they were freshmen.
Why, you say? Why would one repeatedly annoy someone during a season opener Auburn football game with something as insignificant as collegiate grade level?
The answer: alcohol.
The student was already belligerently intoxicated after taking his seat and then also revealed a disposable flask with liquor that he mixed in with his stadium soda.
This happens all the time. It's no big deal. I don't patronize this one student for something hundreds of people do each game.
My problem is not with the fact that the alcohol was brought into the stadium.
It is more regarding the audacity the student had to do so.
This is your first game as an Auburn student. Enjoy it. There will never be another.
However, that doesn't mean you need to get completely obliterated, sneak liquor into the game and have your girlfriend take you home half way through the first quarter.
At a risk of sounding like an after school special program, that is merely not the Auburn way.
Realize that there are rules and criteria for sitting in the student section.
Represent yourself as Auburn men and women, and realize that none of your actions go unnoticed, even if you don't remember them.
And for God's sake, don't be that guy.
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