Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — This article has been modified from its original version. Kevin Gillispie is the author of the column. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.
The Regimental Commander of the Corps of Cadets gave a speech that outlined his immigration from Kuwait to Tech. He expressed his gratitude for being given the gift of an American education and his soon-to-be-approved U.S. citizenship. He reflected on how only in this country could a non-native be granted acceptance into an organization such as the Corps of Cadets and then be promoted to its highest rank. And amid all his gratitude and joy a secret regret emerged from his speech. He will always lament not being a Highty Tighty.
The relationships formed among these people were built on the pain and strife of a common challenge and the deep happiness in acquiring something that can never be taken away: having lived as a cadet and bandsman and sharing the gauntlet shoulder-to-shoulder with one's buds.
This lifestyle isn't for everyone. It isn't meant to be. What one must understand is that all the knowledge a curriculum throws at a student will amount to nothing more than curios on a coffee table once the tribulations of real life walk through the door. People need people they can trust more than any intellectual resource. And such people will only be found if the right college lifestyle is chosen.It is on these "fields of friendly strife" that the Corps offers that the contributions of those gone on before these cadets -- these Highty Tighties -- live on with the same force as the new deeds of the young blood. Other lifestyles can produce trusted individuals, but it is this lifestyle that guarantees them.As a dramatic example of the longevity of these living relationships, the Highty Tighties and the Highty Tighty Alumni Band perform together once per year at the Homecoming football game. The current HTs form up at one end of Worsham field with the HT Alumni at the other. They march at one another and at mid-field, they walk into each other and become one musical mass.
The alumni come out the other end and then fall in behind the current HTs -- a maneuver symbolic of how the HT alumni are forever behind the endeavors of the current band. Then just as quickly as they amassed themselves, the two bands separate and stand as co-owners of an undying legacy -- one band with white cords, the other with maroon cardigans. The two symbols of everything these people have struggled to make their own, the two symbols of their great consequence.
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Correct the byline. This is clearly not "Matt" Gillispie.
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