Thank You Swampy!

“Get me out of here!”

At nineteen, our daughter was sure of nothing, but positive about this.  Southern Oregon University was “too small, too local.”  Besides, “No one’s ever heard of it.” 

Her breaking point?  “If I stay here, I’ll never get a job outside the Rogue Valley.” 

Everyone gets one mulligan in their college career, right?  

So madre Annabelle packed the TSwift trinkets and the Keurig from the Shasta dorm.  Cruised the Ashland town square one last time.  Then headed East, towards the land of brand-name universities and certified business programs.

A year later, we were back for the fall semester, a little poorer and a crap-ton wiser.

On the second floor of the SOU library dwells a ten foot tall, 500 pound creature.  Swampy ain’t your typical icon.  The art student asked herself, “What if a horse had to live in a swamp?” (C’mon, you’ve asked yourself the same thing).  

And I love it.  Why?  

Because Swampy is the essence of Southern Oregon University.  Not flashy.  Not perfect.  Kind of weird.  But fun.  Innocent.  A bit of fairy dust in a university that hasn’t lost its magic. An underdog worth rooting for.

Today, colleges are factories, evaluated by byzantine Wall Street-like metrics, such as net tuition ratio and alternative revenue streams.  

OK…

But what if my daughter isn’t a widget?  

On a brisk June day, she shook the Dean’s hand and we headed to Morning Glory for flapjacks, graduation gown and all.  She joined the alumni board a year later, confidently reassuring any doubtful prospective Red Raiders.

“I KNOW, isn’t it great that it only takes ten minutes to walk across campus?”

Photo property of Southern OR University

SOU sits in a crease between the Siskiyou and Cascade mountain ranges, looking up toward the Pacific Coast Trail.  College students are also surrounded by campus life on one side, the beckoning real world on the other.  Swampy whispers a vital truth: Embrace your quirky cool, and never let the pursuit of 'success' extinguish your joy and wonder.

And, happily, the world didn’t pickpocket the dreams of my daughter.  Today, she thrives in a demanding career in Los Angeles, her dream realized.   Her path was paved with the quiet confidence nurtured at Southern Oregon University – a confidence that, like Swampy, celebrates the joy of being a little different, and a lot inspired.