While listening to the names of my classmates being called to receive their diplomas at my graduation ceremony yesterday, I got to thinking about my school's alma mater. The lyrics were printed in the back of our programs, and the school chorus sang it beautifully at the start of the ceremony. There was something about that alma mater that just will not fit with the school anymore - Something that will need to be changed in the very near future.
First, a little background information about my school.
My high school sits in the vast pine flatwoods of north Florida on what used to be a small road named after a portion of my family. The only things to be seen outside of my school's campus are pine trees...And lots of them. It really is a peaceful place when there are not 2,700 raucous teenagers rampaging about the campus.
Recently, though, that road has been widened to four lanes, extended farther south to connect with another highway, and renamed to "******** Parkway." This new "Parkway" is only a small part of a huge development that is slated to completely envelop my school's campus within just a few years. Now, here comes the predicament for my school.
The first two lines of our school's alma mater are:
"Oh, **************, our alma mater,
Set around the mighty pines..."
What is my school to do when those "mighty pines" are torn down to make way for more and more homes? I guess those pines aren't so mighty, after all! But, really, this will be a problem. It will be no longer relevant to have those lyrics in our alma mater when there are no more "mighty pines" surrounding the school. So what is to be done?
I suggest re-tooling the lyrics to something like this:
"Oh, *******, our alma mater,
Set around the mighty developments."
...or even better...
"Oh, ********, our alma mater,
Set around the urban sprawl."
As sarcastic as it may sound, this will become a real predicament for my school in the future. What do yall reckon will happen to our alma mater?
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2 comments:
I don't think they were anticipating what you are when they chose those words. Just a guess.
And maybe they could by an area around the school to keep the pines there.
I had a chuckle when I read your post. I thought the same thing as I read the alma mater. What will they sing? The question is: does anyone really care? I mean, who pays attention to that sort of thing anyway? Don't students just want a faster exit out of school? And people just want new places to live. Sad, really.
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