Being Texan is a state of mind

We’re in the home stretch. Finals are so close, you can smell them. They reek.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was food and football that lasted four days. Folks, it doesn’t get much better than that.

For many, that was probably the first time they got to go home. Ah yes, home. Mine is ten minutes away. But I’m not the only Texan here. I feel the Texan love.

Several summers ago, I was in England, and a guy I met there, who was from Illinois, said to me, “I thought everything in Texas was supposed to be bigger.” I ran away crying. No, not really.

Being Texan isn’t just a heritage. It’s a state of mind that only a Texan would understand. And when you’re away from Texas too long, you become even more Texan, as my friends who go to school out of state would agree.

You always know who’s from Texas and who’s not.

You know you’re not from Texas when you don’t understand why football lasts four days: high school football on Friday, college football on Saturday, NFL on Sunday and Monday night.

You know you’re not from Texas when you don’t know the true context of the word fixin’. If it’s fixin’ followed by a noun, then it means you’re repairing something. If it’s fixin’ followed by the preposition to (i.e. fixin’ to), then it means you’re on the verge of doing something in the immediate future. The latter is the proper one to use in Texas.

You know you’re not from Texas when you don’t know what a Mum is. It’s a huge, gaudy-looking thing of ribbon and bells that we used to wear to Homecoming in high school.

You know you’re not from Texas when it’s seventy degrees outside, and you’re complaining that it’s hot. You can always spot the Texans from the non-Texans. The Texan will be out in snowboots, a jacket, scarf and hat. And when it hits 65, we’re reaching for our skiing gear. The non-Texans will be the ones wearing shorts and flip flops.

You know for sure you’re not from Texas if you pronounce quesadillas as “case-uh-dill-uh-s.”

You’re not from Texas if you have to ask the waiter if the restaurant serves chips and queso. We’re in Texas. You can walk into an Italian restaurant and order chips and queso.

Texas likes to name things as the “Official State Whatever.” Besides the obvious things like the official state tree (pecan tree) and the official state flower (bluebonnet), did you know we have a state gem? It’s the Texas Blue Topaz.

The state insect is the Monarch butterfly.

The state shell is the Lightning whelk. I’m not sure I even know what one looks like.

The state stone is the Petrified palmwood. I’m not sure what that looks like either.

The official Texas fiber and fabric is cotton. Not polyester or even 90 percent cotton/5 percent polyester/5 percent other materials. Just cotton.

We have a state pepper and a state native pepper: the jalapeno and the chiltepin.

The Texas state dish is chili.

Texas has three official mammals: small, large and flying. The small mammal is the armadillo. You run over these all the time when driving through Texas country roads. The large mammal is the longhorn, and the flying mammal is the Mexican free-tailed bat.

Texas state dinosaur: Brachiosaur Sauropod, Pleurocoelus. Geez, and people worry about running over armadillos. If any of you ever see one of these, let me know. You could be rich.

This one really cracks me up. We have a state grass. I thought it’d just be grass. How can you even distinguish grass from grass? Apparently, Texas can, and the official state grass is Sideoats grama.

I’m not as Texan as I thought I was. I didn’t even know the official state grass.

Ann Truong is a senior math and electrical engineering major. She may be contacted at [email protected].