When I was a senior at Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida, the reaction I got when I told people I was heading to the University of Oklahoma was always the same: “Why?”
The truth? I couldn’t fully put it into words back then. But I felt it. Part of it was legacy—I grew up a Sooner. My dad went to OU. My grandfather went to OU. Crimson and Cream runs in my family, and I always knew I wanted to carry that forward. But even more than that, when I toured OU my junior year, something clicked. There was an energy on campus that wrapped me up like family. People smiled at me—not because they had to, but because that’s just who they were. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t loud. It was something deeper: a sense of belonging.
OU gave me more than a degree. It gave me a home. I found mentors who believed in me before I believed in myself. I found traditions that rooted me, like storming the field with the Sooner Schooner as part of the Oklahoma RUF/NEKS, and chanting “Boomer Sooner” with 85,000 of my closest friends. I found late nights in Gaylord Hall rehearsing PR pitches until my voice cracked, and early mornings when the Oklahoma sky turned the whole world pink and gold and reminded me how lucky I was to be there.
And every single day, campus itself reminded me too. The sharpest green grass you’ve ever seen. The mums bursting with color every fall. The iconic crimson signs swaying on the light poles, lining every walkway like a quiet promise that you belonged here. OU is beautiful in a way that stays with you.
Because of that foundation—the people, the pride, the push to dream bigger—I went on to The Walt Disney Company. To NBCUniversal. To the worlds no. 1 CRM technology, Salesforce. I carry OU with me in every room I walk into. (Seriously, I wear an OU polo to work quite frequently and have an OU sticker on my work laptop.)
Sometimes, I look back at move-in day at Couch Tower in 2015—standing there with my bags, buzzing with excitement, ready to dive into something completely new, and I wish I could tell that version of me: “You have no idea how much this place is about to change you. You’ll laugh harder, work harder, dream bigger, find best friends who will be in your wedding, and love deeper here than you ever thought possible.”
OU isn’t just a stop along the way. It’s the place where you’ll become the version of yourself you didn’t even know was waiting.
So when people ask “Why OU?” you might not have the perfect answer yet. But trust me: once you’ve lived it, you will.
Welcome home.
