Souvenirs

     For this assignment, I decided to try my luck and find souvenirs at the TCU Bookstore. I had no idea that they had so many other things to buy besides textbooks and school supplies! Here are three interesting and symbolic souvenirs that I found.

      The first souvenir I found was this picture frame. A picture frames is avery meaningful souvenir to have. It is a place that is meant to hold photos of events that happened, of your memories, and help you to remember them forever. It is especially meaningful if you put in a picture that is connected to the frame. For example, if your friend gives you a picture frame at your birthday party, then put it a picture of you and him/her from the party to make the meaning extra special. It is a symbol of your past, and how the past remains an important part of us. While the people in our lives may come and go in the physical sense, or the places that we have visited may change, a picture frame can help us remember the person or place as it was, and help us remember how we felt in that moment. And finally, picture frames are important because they help us  hold on and reminiscence about something that helped make us who we are.

Now it is no surprise that the TCU bookstore carries TCU shirts. This shirt helps us make meaning of our lives, because our education, especially college education, is an important part of our past and shapes our future. But the TCU experience is more than just academics. This experience also involves athletics, clubs, and friendships. We spend a lot of time here, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Also, college is a time where we discover who we are, and who we will be. So this T-shirt helps us remember the times we have had in college, the life and academic lessons we have learned, and the friends we have made. This shirt in particular is important because it symbolizes an important change in TCU and the lives of its students, TCU's entrance into the Big XII. TCU's entrance in the Big XII marked the beginning of a transition into a national, known, and high quality university not just in the athletic world, but in the academic world as well. So this shirt is a symbol of change, and of a new beginning, that we can carry with us forever.

And finally, I saw this shirt. It stood out to me because it has a design of Texas on it, and is the color of the state flag. This shirt has meaning because it symbolizes Texas pride. People who live here love this state, and this shirt symbolizes the place that they are a part of, and the place that is a part of them. People are proud of Texas, and want to let everyone else know where they are from or where they live. It reminds me of the expression that goes, "You can take a girl out of Texas but not Texas out of the girl." Even though many people here are not from Texas, they still make Texas their home away from home for 4 years. So this shirt symbolizes the time they spent here, the influence Texas and Texas culture had on them, and the memories they made. After all, we are called "TEXAS Christian University." So we are not just a part of TCU, we are a part of Texas as well. In fact, TCU in general is a part of Texas and its history and culture, and Texas is a part of TCU.