My Virginia Tech Song

On a perfect October morning in 2018, during my junior year of high school, my mom and I drove to Virginia Tech for my first-ever college tour. Little did I know that I would find my future home and a song that would play at every big moment in my college journey.

When most people think of a Virginia Tech song, they probably think of “Enter Sandman.” Don’t get me wrong, “Enter Sandman” is the #1 greatest entrance song in college football ... but it’s not my Virginia Tech song. My Virginia Tech song is "Something Just Like This," by Coldplay and the Chainsmokers. Here’s why...

After driving a few hours down Route 81, my mom and I arrived at the Virginia Tech Visitor Center. The first thing we saw upon entering the building was the Hokie Bird. There are few things I regret about that day, but one is that I was too shy to take a picture with what I now know to be the best mascot on Earth. We shuffled into a room filled with some fellow nervous high school students and their parents to sit somewhere in the middle of the many rows of chairs.

After a few moments, the lights dimmed, and a video began playing on the projector screen in front of us. The video was four minutes and seven seconds of pure Virginia Tech spirit, played over “Something Just Like This.” The song wasn’t revolutionary — it had been released two years prior, so it wasn’t even played on the radio anymore — but the lyrics, “I want something just like this” played over candid videos of Hokies being ... Hokies. There was a montage of footage showing students laughing in Turner Place, cheering in Cassell Coliseum, chatting at Gobblerfest, jumping in Lane Stadium, walking together across the Drillfield, and more.

Before that day, I had never felt like I was part of anything bigger; many of my friends in high school graduated years before me, and I spent most of my days working or spending time with my mom and younger siblings. After the song ended, though, I had this weird moment, I could almost see where I would fit in that video. I did want something just like that ... I wanted to be part of the community I saw in those candid clips.

My mom and I listened through some prospective student presentations, then we went on to see the Virginia Tech campus for the very first time.

On our drive home, as I realized that the fall foliage in the New River Valley almost perfectly matched the university colors, I told my mom that Virginia Tech is where I belong.

I had never wanted something as much as I wanted to be a Hokie, and I didn’t know where to start. My mom told me that if Virginia Tech was where I wanted to be, then I could do it; I needed to focus hard and do well in my classes, put every effort into my early decision application, and never take my eyes off my goal. The first thing she did when we got home was move a desk into my room. She told me to get comfortable, because that desk was where I’d do the work that would earn me a place at Virginia Tech — and she wasn’t wrong.

For the following 13 months leading up to the application deadline, I thought about being a Hokie nearly every day. When I got tired studying late at night and felt like I wanted to give up, or when I started to feel like I was never actually going to be able to make it to Blacksburg, I turned on "Something Just Like This." While I listened to the song, I clicked through pictures of the Virginia Tech campus. I googled football games, campus buildings, basketball games, Gobblerfest, dining halls ... anything I could to find pictures to create my own slideshow of Hokie spirit. When I needed a boost, I'd listen to the song and click through my pictures — but once and once only, to avoid diluting the motivational power — and I'd jump back into my work. I had found my very own Virginia Tech hype song, and I trained myself to feel this terrific rush of maroon and orange endorphins when I needed to be reminded of what I was working to earn.

On a cold day in February 2020, my senior year of high school, I came home from work to find my mom sitting at the kitchen counter. I knew the decision from Virginia Tech would be sitting in my inbox that evening. I had been wracked with nerves for days. I gave my mom access to my email and told her that I wanted her to open the email before me; I didn’t think I could bear receiving bad news from anyone but her. As the front door shut behind me and my bookbag hit the floor, she pressed a button on her laptop and my Hokie song started playing from its speakers. I had been accepted into the Honors College at Virginia Tech.

Three weeks later, the pandemic lockdowns began. My senior class never returned to our high school, my mom got married, my family moved to a different state, and I got a full-time job.

After many tears and a lot of indecision, I chose to defer my enrollment at Virginia Tech for one year. I would wait one year, stock up my savings account, and wait to see if COVID-19 would leave anything of my Hokie dream.

Thankfully, the community I fell in love with was not destroyed by the force of the coronavirus. Seventeen months after my acceptance, I made my way back down Route 81.

After we had unloaded all my belongings into an O'Shaughnessy Hall dorm room and finished a pizza at Mellow Mushroom, my mom pulled me into her arms and told me that we weren’t going to be sad about separating. I worked hard to get here, and I earned my place at the university I fell in love with so long ago. As my parents got into their car to drive back down Washington Street, I put my earbuds in. Hand in the air to wave goodbye, and some tears of joy and sadness and relief in my eyes, I hit play on my Virginia Tech theme song. I wanted "Something Just Like This," and I had made it.

I've loved being a Hokie more than I could have ever dreamed. After waiting through those long COVID months, I jumped into my college experience with such vigor and enthusiasm.

In my second month on campus, I was elected to serve as the first ever Vice President for Issues & Policy in the inaugural Undergraduate Student Senate at Virginia Tech. For three years, I represented Virginia Tech undergraduates in front of university leaders on campus, Virginia policymakers in Richmond, and even U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C. I demonstrated my Hokie Spirit through advocacy, using my passion to support my peers and to raise up the undergraduate student voice.

As a junior, I was offered the incredible opportunity to work as a Student Fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. In this role I've had so many incredible opportunities to work alongside the fantastic people who make Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech. I've learned that through their creativity, drive, innovation, and love for students, the leaders and administrators of Virginia Tech have created the space that we Hokies call home, and they continue to adapt our experience every day.

Four years later, I still listen to my song every time I drive back home to Blacksburg. I built the community I longed for all those years ago. I have laughed in Turner, cheered in Cassell, recruited at Gobblerfest, jumped in Lane Stadium, walked with friends across the Drillfield, and so much more.

This spring I will walk across the stage at graduation, and I know exactly what song I'll play as I look in the mirror to straighten my cap and gown.

It doesn't matter if it’s a song, a ritual, or a favorite place, but I hope current and future Hokies find their own "Something Just Like This" to guide them through their Virginia Tech journey.