Heart and Mind

School Swag

My college alma mater is SUNY Oswego in Oswego, NY. So is my wife's. We met there, so it's no coincidence. And that's fine.

But that's also where everyone in the immediate family I grew up in attended: My father and mother (they met there, too) and my sister. That's kind of lame.

I think it's lame, anyway.

If members of said immediate family ever read this, they're going to take exception or they'll fire an insult my way by saying, "Oh, that's typical Steve... he's grumpy like that." But let me explain...

I have no problem with my family or with Oswego. It's just that when I say that I followed in the footsteps of all the people in the house I grew up in (since I, in fact, was the youngest and last to attend college), it makes it sound like it's some sort of "family tradition" or like I couldn't venture out enough and make my own history based on novel choices. I had to go to the same stinkin' school that everyone else did. As if, in my mind, that would be a cool thing to do.

Fact of the matter is, I didn't feel like that at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I felt like the biggest deterrent to me going to school there was that it made me look like some follower who was excited about continuing some kind of familial ritual. No disrespect intended to my family, but....diversity! That's what makes the world go around. While some people may find it appealing to be part of some plan to go to the family school, I was and am not a person to be counted among them. Why not find a new place?

Well, see, that's what I wanted to do, but it didn't work out that way. First of all, I was somewhat limited in that my folks told me that, although they would support me going to any school anywhere in the world, I would be responsible for shouldering more of the financial burden if I didn't attend a state school. So, in the interest of not losing my shirt before I technically even had one, that limited me to a handful of schools. I think there were only about 15 or 20 schools that were 4-year universities in the system. So I checked out a bunch of them, and for a number of reasons, Oswego was the one that I liked best both in terms of how it related to academics and how the environment felt to me. It was the one that I wanted to attend.

So, I was faced with this dilemma. Although I didn't want to "repeat history," not doing so would be biting off my nose to spite my face. So, I made the right decision and went to Oswego.

And I had a great time, easily some of the greatest and best years of my life were spent in that port city. It was a great decision.

But none of this is what this blog is about. It's all just an introduction to talk about Oswego swag—shirts, sweat-shirts, hats, etc.

From the time I was in high school, I've known people who've gone crazy for collegiate casual wear. Getting an official sweatshirt from the school bookstore was considered a great thing. You didn't even have to go to school there or know someone who did, but if that were the case, that would be all the more reason to be excited. And when my friends started getting accepted to schools, the first thing they'd do upon confirming their upcoming attendance was to buy stuff to wear (or have their parents' buy it for them).

But see, I never have been particularly into the collegiate clothing. Oh, I've had a few shirts and stuff, no doubt. I must make it crystal clear that I have nothing against collegiate clothing, either. And people have bought me Oswego swag over the years as gifts and such, and I was glad to receive them and I wore them without reservation. But, to me, it was just a shirt or what have you; not something that I felt any extra pride wearing. It was just clothing.

Do you know what I mean when I reference "pride" in the previous sentence? While the merits of wearing any clothing that "advertises" is questionable (Hi, Rich), I certainly have experienced that little extra sense of excitement when, in my younger days, I would wear something that advertised Pro*Mark drumsticks or something. You see, that was me feeling like the shirt said something about me. It said, "I am a drummer. I'm a musician. I'm the kind of guy who loves music and sort of enjoys being identified as such." All of that stuff was true.

But to say, "I attend or attended school here," doesn't say much beyond that. Who cares, right? I mean, maybe people didn't care that I was a musician, either, but it made me happy to think they might. I don't really care whether people thought I went to Oswego vs. Buffalo vs. Oneonta or anywhere else.

So that brings me to the ultimate point. Sometimes my kids run around in Oswego swag. They get them as gifts (occasionally) and as hand-me-downs (more commonly) from others in the family who got them as gifts or direct purchases from these other folks in my family who went to school there and like collegiate wear.

So, the kids will wear this Oswego gear from time to time, and sometimes it initiates questioning. Well, at the very least, it initiates one question at any rate. "Who went to Oswego?" At which point I will tell them, "I did. And Sue did. We both went there."

And with that, 100 people out of 100 would make an assumption, but it's one that is not exactly true. The assumption is, "Oh, they must be wearing that clothes that say Oswego because their parent's went there." No... we have never bought them any Oswego swag. As much as we loved our years there—and make no mistake about it, I did, and in ways I couldn't even begin to touch upon in this short blog—the t-shirt thing is not where we choose to spend our dollar. They, more accurately, wear the stuff because other relatives went there. Not because we did, even though that happens to be true, as well. I think that's kind of funny.

posted by Steve @ 4:39 PM