<p>I make this post because I've recently seen alot of students from other schools trying to downplay our significance (says alot about you if you must tear down to build up) and many parents defending our school while not being able to give the full viewpoints. Parents rest assured you made the right decision, but if I can help clear it up a little better, I'll attempt to as I have been asked to post what I feel about SC. If you wanna know anything else I'll be around.</p>
<p>Being a Trojan is something only fellow Trojans truly understand. It's not about partying it up in Hollywood or the Row all the time (although that is damn good fun), it's not about killing yourself for that 4.0 GPA, although that's a damn good goal. It's not about just going to school, getting your work done and keeping your head low. If you are looking for that type of experience I highly suggest you consider transferring. It doesn't mean you get to throw your two fingers up at football games on the weekend and become an invisibody on campus during the week. Being a Trojan athlete doesn't mean you go to practice to joke around and have fun, and being a Trojan band member damn well means you aren't going to practice to have fun (for all you bandies, you know all of USC loves y'all includin me :p).
Being a member of the college doesn't just mean you get out of all the hard classes, and being a member of Engineering or Architect doesn't just mean you only take boring, difficult classes.</p>
<p>Finally, I guess I could summarize the rest of what I Was going to say with this: Being a trojan is not about complacency.</p>
<p>What is it then? As stupid as this sounds, putting it into words is difficult, so I'll let our actions speak for us. </p>
<p>What it is to be a Trojan is knowing that even if you're out the night before partying it up, we all adhere to the work hard, play hard mentality. If you are playing hard you better be working hard or you won't be getting sympathy from anyone the next day. It means fighting for your views and having opportunities to protest, lobby and make a difference. A close friend of mine just went to DC with the college to lobby congress on action in African nations. She was a FRESHMAN. What it is to be a Trojan is to always be ready to be thrown into the mix in order to evolve. That's why freshmen year unlike many other schools business majors take trips to Hong kong, India, Western Europe or Beijing in order to shape their viewpoints. Being a Trojan is to get on your field, whether its band, football, water polo, basketball, track, WHATEVER, and COMPETE. USC athletes aren't there to beat you, they are there to compete against themselves, the only way to push yourselves, evident in the HOURS upon HOURS you may hear the band practicing, or the ungodly hour some of my water polo friends arise at. </p>
<p>See, Troy is a place where knowledge can't be found just in books, and that theme is part of the very life blood in our school. It's about experimentation, diversification and exposure to innovation. That's what programs like the Freshman seminars are all about, allowing you to take seminars and lectures in dozens of topics each semester that are incredibly interesting and generally extremely unique. That's why Visions and Voices ranges from everything from Smack Poetry to guest speakers, to musicals, to social outings. It's the reason why there are so many majors and minors offered (the largest in an NA university iirc). Even engineers can properly schedule a schedule where study abroad in other nations is possible and when it is it is highly encouraged if they can manage the workload. Freshman year we were told of internship opportunities that would be available to us in the IR department early on to the excitement of most students. </p>
<p>This doesn't just stop at the classes, it's represented in the very student body when you look around. I may be different from most with friends from over 22 different countries I can count in my head at the moment, but I highly doubt it. Just some of the places I know people from include: Greece, Japan, England, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Brazil, Iran, UAE, etc. This type of knowledge offered is something very abstract and hard to capture, but it's quite a bit more powerful than any book sense. Living with all these people and getting close with dozens of people is far more enlightening when they each come from various walks of life offering new improvements to your life. I've learned to camp and hike well, debate in a "more European manner" (according to them I still let my loudmouth and arrogance slip :p), and see the world from so many different prespectives. And race isn't the only determining factor. Socioeconomic backgrounds are completely different, and as little as I originally realized, this too provides something that's so unique to our school. I'm fairly broke IRL lol, some of my closest friends are incredibly rich. They have completely shattered many stereotypes for me as I have for them. </p>
<p>I want to take a break here and clarify why. There are many parents in the world graced with money that teach their kids no social grace. Thankfully, almost all the SC parents have raised amazing kids, so much so that I can't even believe that I used to have even a slight prejudice against some of the rich before I met them. Now I realize that my ignorance was blinding me to the fact that money doesn't change everyone, just the stupid ones. In fact I've found that my friends with money are willing to do as much if not more than what I do for them, and anyone who knows me knows I'll do alot for my boys.</p>
<p>When it came to me I know some people may have seen a black kid that likes to party, but again, our student body is tailored to WANT new experiences. It's an insatiable itch and so I was able to show the other side of an over sensationalized media presentation as blacks only partying (although I can't say I don't love to party :p), just as many rich kids showed me the nonsense that is portrayed about many rich people.</p>
<p>I say all this because I see these ranking rigging things, and people consistently hating and I'm reminded that people pity the weak and envy the strong, and the more people try to bring down our rep, I'm once again reminded at the astuteness of my schoolmates as we chuckle your accusations off.</p>
<p>When you find me a place where I can learn from CIA operatives who aided in Pablo Escobar's take down, IR professors who worked Foreign Policy with previous presidential administrations, have visits from Stephen Hawking, meet an incredible Smack Poet, learn about Taipei from a friend who actually LIVES there, get a real Palestinians opinion about the gaza strip meet a person from a different country every three days for a year straight and not run out, or a place where I'm offered jobs just because I attend school there, or even a place where the spirit electrifies the very aura of the campus let me know, until then...damn it feels good to be a Trojan.</p>