As I read these passages, my mind kept going to what being a Longhorn truly meant to me. I feel that I attend a university where both academics and rich traditions are unparalleled. Longhorn students have grown to be very similar to the animal for which they are patrons. " The cattle I am thinking of made their reputations in fierce, hardy, persistent,resourceful, daring efforts to maintain freedom. They refused to be the 'dumb driven cattle'"(p 148). Characteristically , we all got into this university because we were the cream of the crop from our high schools. We refuse to the take the path that most travel and make our own. We are the "outlaws" of conformity and mediocrity and constantly reaching for higher ground in academics as well as athletics.
Mustangs, like longhorns have resilient spirits that are not easily broken. I often envied the images of wild horses that I had viewed in past. I resented their freedom and their lack of barriers. When I actually think about it, as a student longhorn, I am more like a mustang than I realized. I have freedom of thought and my creativity is what no knows no bounds. It's important as students to never lose that spirit. When we lose that spirit, we lose our beauty--our essence. "When he stood trembling with fear before his captor...made submissive by choking...he had lost what made him so beautiful and free" (p. 168). "He relied upon motion, not covert, for the maintenance of liberty" (p.169). I will rely upon my constant movement and will not become complacent. I want to always strive for better and that's how I will maintain my liberty.
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