The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know

Why do rivalries exist?

Why do rivalries exist?

The next Friday, Joe Trohman started chatting with me after our Freshman Writing Seminar. After a meaningful discussion about the implications of a new discovery in quantum mechanics on the meaning of life, Joe asked me a rather odd question that I didn't know how to answer.

"Are you going to the football game tonight?" he asked me as we entered the dining hall.

"What football game?" I said. Up until that point, I was only vaguely aware that Kale University had a football team at all. Kale wasn't exactly a school that was known for its sports prowess.

Joe rolled his eyes and said, "We're playing Yale tonight. Everyone's going to be there. Even Andy's going, and he's not interested in anything remotely athletic that's not Crossfit."

"That doesn't make sense," I said. "I didn't think that Yale was in our conference."

"They're not, but we play them every year anyways," Joe said. "It's a tradition."

"I see," I said. "Maybe I'll go."

"You can think about it," Joe said. "I'll see you at the game if you go. I'm going to be in the student section. I even wore the Kale T-shirt that I bought when I got accepted just for the occasion!"

I looked over at Joe's T-shirt, and saw that he was wearing the exact same Kale T-shirt that I owned. "I have that shirt too," I said.

"That's neat," Joe said. "I love the school slogan, by the way. 'I don't just want to be a footnote in someone else's happiness.' It's so inspirational."

"I think so too," I said.

Joe and I both finished up our lunches and headed back to Flack Hall. When I arrived back in my dorm, I thought about the football game.

Football is one thing that I've never quite understood. Why would anyone want to participate in a sport where concussions and head injuries are all but guaranteed? Such violence doesn't make sense, and I've never been one to want to support it. Football simply doesn't have a purpose - it doesn't even entertain me, although I know that some people would disagree. I could argue that it does make others happy, and that is the purpose of football. I could also argue that football is how Kale, along with practically every other university in the country, is making its money, so it has the purpose of paying for my tuition, but that's a little too cynical for my taste.

I also personally don't understand why everyone at Kale hates Yale University so much. We're close to Yale, and we're constantly confused with them, but I had never met a Yale student. I couldn't judge them before I met them.

Despite my worries, I decided to go to the football game. I had my moral objections to football, but supporting my school and spending some time with my friends seemed more important. I dressed myself in red and black, complete with the same Kale University T-shirt as Joe, and walked to Desfilenegro Field, the only Kale building that was farther from the center of campus than Flack Hall. It took me forever to get there, and when I did arrive, it turned out that I had to buy tickets.

"That will be thirty dollars," the woman at the ticket counter said.

I fumbled through my wallet, but I already knew that there was no way that I had enough. I stepped out of the way as I counted up my money, uncertain of how I would get into the game if I couldn't pay for tickets. Why are college football games so expensive? I'm a Kale student - shouldn't it be free for me to support my school? What was the point of a monetary system anyways? Was there a better way to ensure that everyone could get what they needed?

I had six dollars and ninety three cents in my wallet, which wasn't even close to the amount that I needed to pay. I could call my mom and ask her for a little bit more money, but that wouldn't arrive for a while, and it seemed unethical to ask her for more money when she was working so hard just to support herself. I didn't want to go back to being the burden that I had been for her over the past eighteen years.