When I was deciding to transfer here, one of the biggest reasons people encouraged me to attend was “the culture.” They would tell me Notre Dame was a school unlike any other, that I would be gaining one of the best educations in the country and that I would love tailgating as a student and then an alumnus for the rest of my life.
Once I got here, attended my first few weeks of classes and a game day, I realized that education and fun here really are equally important parts of students’ lives. It’s been kind of a shock to my system: surviving the demands of my classes during the week and then twelve hours of tailgating Saturday has left me sleeping through most of the Sundays I’ve had since I got here. I began to wonder: how do we do it all? Are we doing too much?
When investigating the first question, I found that Notre Dame students have three distinct traits: stamina, enthusiasm and a “go big or go home” attitude.
First, our stamina — people on this campus embody the “work hard, play hard” stereotype. It wasn’t until Friday night before my second gameday, wandering campus at 10:00 p.m. looking for a place to finish my assignment due at midnight, that I noticed everyone was in the same boat as me. Students at Notre Dame don’t flinch at a daunting Friday night full of homework — we face it fearlessly under the fluorescents of Hesburgh. We put our headphones on in our bedroom to drown out the party raging next door and have our favorite Edikted top laid out on our bed because we’re planning to go out as soon as we hit submit.
After getting home at 2 a.m. on Friday, of course, the average Notre Dame student is awake at seven the next morning to get ready for game day. To us, donning our Irish green while it's still dark outside is the perfect way to prepare for a twelve-hour day of meeting our friends’ (and realistically, vague acquaintances’) parents, sunburn and eating the weirdest combinations of free tailgate food.
Some of us are so dedicated to this weekend routine, in fact, that they will often walk to their tailgate running a fever, with assignments pulled up on their phone to work on between tailgate hops and in the case of a couple truly committed students I know, even throwing up. The only thing that keeps them going is sheer enthusiasm for every aspect of our student experience.
People are so enthusiastic about this school that after they graduate, they return with their families to walk around campus like tourists. I called my parents laughing when people were here on Friday taking pictures. You would think the Dome was the Eiffel Tower the way people were posing in front of it and discussing its history in line at the LaFun Starbucks.
The final distinguishing aspect of Notre Dame’s students, and the university itself, is the “go big or go home” attitude. Was it necessary, for example, to have an airplane flyover before the Miami Ohio game started? Did we need a university-themed drone show during our massive Inauguration Ball? Was it essential to cancel classes so we could host basically the entire city of South Bend for food trucks and live music on the library lawn? My research (asking my friends) revealed that the answer to all these questions is yes, obviously — this is Notre Dame, and I’m the only person who's surprised.
It is obvious that ND students have what it takes to juggle a heavy course load, be involved in basically every organization on campus and get through the weekend marathon every week. But the question still remains: should we? Are we doing too much?
In the spirit of journalistic integrity, I admit that I didn’t go to the game this weekend. I woke up Saturday morning after a near all-nighter on Thursday with a headache, a sore throat and a cough. I even got up and pulled my game day clothes out before I accepted the reality: I wasn’t going to make it this weekend.
When I woke up around 3 p.m., I felt slightly guilty and embarrassed that I skipped a game. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that I was doing too much. Even a Notre Dame student sometimes has to rest.
So are we doing too much? I think it depends on the person. I respect everyone who decides to prioritize their peace every once in a while almost as much as I respect the people who crawl, throwing up the whole way, to every game of the season.
Sophia Anderson is a sophomore at Notre Dame studying political science. She is a transfer student and plans to go to law school. You can contact her at sander38@nd.edu.
