AP News, April 23rd, 2007
I spent the past week receiving condolences for people I never met, people who died at a place I left 20 years ago.
It felt strange, it felt surreal, but it also felt appropriate _ because I am a Hokie.
If you are a graduate of Virginia Tech, you spend a lot of time answering the question, "What is a Hokie?"
I can give the official version: It's a made-up word from an old school cheer. "Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi! Tech, Tech, VPI."
I also can give the unofficial version: It's a term farmers use for a castrated turkey, a taunt that we "Fighting Gobblers" took ownership of at Virginia Tech and made into something else, something positive.
I don't know which came first, the turkey or the cheer. I don't care.
To me, neither defines a Hokie.
A Hokie is a person whose life has been molded by four or five or more years in Blacksburg, Va., having perceptions challenged, talents brought out and flaws exposed inside beautiful gray stone buildings.
A Hokie knows what it feels like to hear the cadets shoot off a cannon as the football team scores in Lane Stadium on a Saturday afternoon in November. A Hokie also knows what it feels like to walk across the drill field in a biting February wind to get to an 8 a.m. class in McBryde Hall.
A Hokie has spent an August night by the banks of the New River, laughing with a group of friends over a case of beer and camp fire. A Hokie has also spent at least one night crying in a dorm room with a friend you know you will have for the rest of your life.
My wife is a Hokie. I met her while working at the campus radio station. West AJ was her freshman dorm. We were both English majors. I can't remember if I had any classes in Norris Hall.
I'm told a lot has changed in Blacksburg since I graduated.
I wonder if Top of the Stairs or the Greek Cellar are still there. I wonder if you can still get the world's largest hamburger at Mike's.
I'm told they no longer allow the spring street parties (they used to close down Barger Street all day and fill it with bands and beer).
But no matter what changes there have been, and what will change after last week, I know one thing about Virginia Tech.
It is still filled with Hokies. And this week, so is the world.
