Natty.

It’s 10:00 AM on the morning of the 2016 National Championship game.

The National. Championship. Game.

That Clemson is playing in.

Y’all.

I honestly STILL can’t wrap my mind around it. I have so many thoughts that they wouldn’t fit into a 140-character tweet and it’d end up being a Facebook post so lengthy that no one would read it.

Then I remembered I have a blog.

I am a born and raised Clemson girl. And when I say “born and raised”, I mean it. My grandfather, Charles Washington, graduated from Clemson A&M in 1956. His only daughter, my mom Holly, graduated from Clemson in 1979. His sister, Martha, LOVED her Tigers. She provided the family with an IPTAY membership and a parking spot in lot 6 (9256, I believe).

I started going to Clemson games as a baby and never stopped. Mom tells a story about being in Disney World on New Year 1989 because Clemson was playing Oklahoma (!!) in the Citrus Bowl and how people wanted to take pictures with me, the “New Year’s baby”. I sat through Clemson/FSU when Peter Warrick burned us. As a 12-year-old at the Clemson/SC game (2000), I watched Derek “Squeaky” Watson point at the Clemson defender (which still makes my blood boil to this day) on a touchdown run. Later that same game, my mom and I were the only two people in the stadium sitting down with our eyes closed until Woody Dantzler let go of the ball and Rod Gardner broke away from the SC defender for The Catch II. I had a panic attack (not really, but basically) the next year at the Clemson/SC game because with post-9/11 security, it made the crowds trying to get into the game almost impossible to maneuver, meaning that we almost missed them running down the hill. I sweated through a 30-0 Georgia beatdown. I stood on my seat during “the fight”. I sat through a Virginia Tech game with a trash bag around my legs because it was raining so hard. I was there for the Texas A&M win, the goalposts coming down after beating #3 FSU, and the 2 OT loss to Miami when Death Valley was SO loud. I missed the Clemson/BC game in 2005 because I had to take the ACT, but I remember listening on the radio when Matt Ryan got killed by David Dunham.

I talked Clemson football with the boys starting in elementary school. I argued with one of my only South Carolina-fan friends (who ended up going to Clemson, ps) all through middle school. He broke his arm in 7th grade and I threatened to write “defensive pass interference” instead of signing my name after The Catch II.

I (somehow) ended up with an early acceptance letter from Clemson in November of 2005. I got in to the only two other schools to which I applied, but honestly, there was never any doubt where I’d spend the next four years. My blood runs orange.

I got up early as a freshman for College Gameday on Bowman. I freaked out when they got to the top of the hill in the all purple against Georgia Tech, and when CJ Spiller took those two defenders out of their shoes. I was at FSU when James Davis won the game before the defenders were set. I blew up balloons as part of Central Spirit so I could sit on the third row when FSU came to town on Memorial Day 2007. I wore my purple Clemson shirt when Furman came to Death Valley as the daughter of a Paladin. I sat through another Clemson loss at Georgia Tech. I sunburned a Tiger Paw on my face when Virginia Tech smashed us in the mouth.  I laid on the floor of my den as Mark Buchholz beat the Gamecocks in Columbia.

In 2008, I started working in Clemson Sports Information. I skipped out on the Alabama game in the Dome (PTL), but I made the up and back trip to Wake Forest, then listened to the news of Tommy Bowden’s firing immediately after. I bought an “All IN” shirt three games in to Dabo Swinney’s interim coaching career. I worked the South Carolina game in 2008 and while the rest of my friends were soaking wet and freezing, I was running stats and getting “scores of other games” for the PA while Jacoby Ford was catching trick play touchdowns and Jamie Harper was blocking punts. I was in the press box in 2009 when the TCU receiver pinned the winning TD catch against Byron Maxwell’s leg. I was in the press box as it shook when DeAndre McDaniel dislocated Christian Ponder’s shoulder. I sat on the second row in Columbia when CJ Spiller ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, then it all went downhill. I road tripped with my friends to Tampa for a shoot-out loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship game.

Then I decided to prolong my time with the school that I loved and started as a Sports Information graduate assistant. I suffered through a 6-7 year, but believed Dabo Swinney when he said “we’ll fix it”. I was in the press box for all the games in 2011, when Sammy Watkins grabbed the nation’s attention against Auburn and FSU. When Coty Sensabaugh ended the Auburn game with a pick and the press box shook, again. I met the team at the West End Zone after the Virginia Tech game and listen to Dabo yell “we ain’t done yet!” I froze my tail off in an open-air press box during yet another loss to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I sped to Greenville when Clemson lost power during the ACC Championship game, then sat in my den and watched the Orange Bowl fiasco.

I finally had to leave my beloved Clemson, but I took an internship with the Southern Conference and only missed one home game in 2012. I was there when Spencer Shuey got a safety against Georgia Tech. I road tripped to Boston for a rare win in Chestnut Hill. I was there when Tajh Boyd started to break ALL the records. Leah and I went to Atlanta and held our breath during 4th and 16 and the LSU win.

Then I took a job at Furman and worried that the schedules would clash so much that my Clemson football attendance might be in jeopardy. But my first year at Furman, I got to go to the Clemson/Georgia “one for the ages” game. I sped from Furman/App State to Clemson just to see Jameis Winston punch #ClemsonLoud in the face. I nervous-excited shook through the Clemson/Ohio State marathon (ALL the flags). I watched Clemson at Georgia in 2014 in the Furman football press box. My heart rate hit 115 during the OT loss at FSU. I was there when Deshaun Watson beat South Carolina with one good knee. I laughed through Cole Stoudt’s redemption (aka Oklahoma).

Furman’s schedule has clashed more with Clemson’s this year. I paced around Timmons Arena by myself for the last two minutes of game time (aka like 20 minutes) because I couldn’t watch the end of Clemson/Notre Dame. I was there when Dalvin Cook busted off a 75-yard TD run and everyone thought this magical season was going to come to an end (which it obviously didn’t). I watched BC’s #1 ranked defense look terrible. I watched Jayron Kearse stomp all over Georgia Tech. Davis and I high-fived our way through the win in Columbia.

I had this same conversation with people every week –
“Do you think Clemson can do it?”
“Idk, I’m conditioned to not be excited. I’m just waiting for it all to come crashing down.”

But it didn’t. It hasn’t. We put up 600 yards of offense against UNC in the ACC Championship game. I happy-cried through the second half of the Oklahoma game. And this week. This week, today, honestly feels like business as usual.

But it’s not. It’s so not.

Clemson shaped my family. It shaped who I am as a person. It’s where I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. I met my boyfriend there. I expanded my friend-group there. And tonight, I’ll finally get to experience what my mom and grandfather experienced as Clemson grads in 1981.

BYOG, y’all. Clemson’s playing for the natty.

xo