Patch Blog: The University of Southern California

Growing up in Pasadena, the University of Southern California was very familiar to me. I pass the campus on the freeway every Sunday on my way to church. I’ve even attended a summer program on the campus so my visit to USC was nothing special. With all of this in mind, I was not excited to tour this university. When I finally arrived at the campus and started to get a feel for everything that is USC, I quickly changed my mind.

A family friend arranged for me to have a VIP tour of the USC campus complete with traveling via golf cart. We whizzed all over the campus on that cart passing by everything from the new construction sights to the pride and joy of all USC students, Tommy the Trojan. The beauty of the campus surprisingly took me aback. The libraries were absolutely breathtaking and looked as though the furniture was from 1880, the year the school was founded. One of the libraries has affectionately been declared where Harry Potter would study if he were a Trojan.

The Cinematic Arts Complex was a close runner up for most beautiful location on campus. Walking into the building was like walking into an actual theatre. It’s hard to imagine that students actually learn in the classrooms designed to be replicas of a movie theatre. Outside of the building there sits a little courtyard where it was surprisingly easy to picture myself in having a little picnic.

Our tour ended with a tutorial of the infamous USC fight on gesture. At the beginning of the journey I was unsure about attending a university so close to home. As time passed the campus started to feel less like 20 minutes away and more like an island with friendly locals. These “locals” all share a unique bond that forces connections and relationships to form. This bond is so strong that after just a few minutes you’ll be saying “Fight on!” just like the rest of the Trojans.