Last week, I celebrated another birthday. Another year come and gone. I found myself just wanting to take a quick trip home to Tuscaloosa to watch my favorite football team play at beautiful Bryant-Denny Stadium.
What I didn’t realize is how spoiled I was about Alabama’s stadium.
See, the boyfriend is a die-hard Mississippi State fan. It’s where he went to school and had his formative college years.
Mine were at Bama, but my family and I had been attending games at Bryant-Denny since I was a little girl.
I knew to expect some snide comments over the weekend as we rolled into Tuscaloosa. Afterall, T-town is covered in crimson and white A’s. There’s houndstooth everywhere and the very heart of the town is our university.
Sure enough there were plenty of eye-rolls on his part along with some snarky comments about crazy Bama fans being everywhere. There was even a moment I was scared he was going to yell the dreaded words, “War Eagle!” at a crowd of Crimson-wearing fans walking into the stadium. Again, I expected no less coming from a devoted Miss State fan.
What I wasn’t expecting was his reaction when we walked out of the tunnels and into the sunshine of the inner dome of Bryant-Denny.
“Oh Wow!” he muddered. I about stumbled from shock because I could tell there was true awe in his voice. I suddenly found myself stopping and looking up and around myself.
In true Bama fashion, no detail was overlooked by the hardworking crews of the stadium. Everything was ready to go to entertain the 100,000 plus fans expected.
But it hit me in that moment, how often we take the blessings and beautiful things in our lives for granted. I’d become so used to seeing the wonder of architectural and engineering achievements of my beautiful Bama stadium that I’d become almost numb to it.
See, for my birthday, I just wanted to see my team play with one of my favorite people, but being there with someone who had never seen it before, opened my eyes to see it in a new way too. And it really was a wonderful day.
As we get closer to Thanksgiving this year, why don’t we all take a moment and look around to see the beauty in our lives that we’ve maybe gotten a little too relaxed about it.
And, just so everyone knows, he’ll get his payback. I’m going to Mississippi State this coming Saturday to watch the Bulldogs play on their home turf. Hopefully, I can bite my tongue before I yell “Roll Tide” at kickoff.
