notre dame football [personal]

some may call it obsessed. i stand firm of the opinion that i just know a good thing when i see it.

the university of notre dame is a good thing. 

growing up in south bend i was raised an irish fan. i remember being a little, little girl watching football games with my dad. by watching, i mean i was playing on my kitchen set while dad paced around the living room because he couldn't sit still. it was at this young age that something was instilled in me that notre dame, the irish, they're something special. in middle school, after my grandad's passing, my mom and gramma and i took an (ill-fated) trip to jacksonville, fl to watch the irish play in the gator bowl. the love-affair with the irish is a family thing, and my gramma knew how badly i wanted to see autrey denson's last game. while we may not have won the game...i may have inadvertently wound up with four broken toes after the loss...we may have been stranded for four days because there was a blizzard in south bend...and i may have missed my 13th birthday at school (big deal!), my love for all things notre dame football never faltered.

it occurred to me this past week, saturday around 11:30 to be exact, that this season is a bit of welcomed, good karma for all irish fans. you see, i wobbled around on crutches in three feet of snow after an irish loss in 1999. after that, it was a rough decade+. we, as fans, have learned there are few things more painful than faked field goals, last minute field goals, Bush-pushes, and worst-seasons-in-the-history-of-ever. i lived outside of michigan stadium for four years of my life; being an irish fan isn't always easy. but this year? this year has made up for it all. 

this year i watched every home game at notre dame stadium.
this year we saw manti te'o lead his team to 12-0.

this year the university of notre dame will play for a national championship ON MY BIRTHDAY.

i cannot put into words how excited and still dumbfounded i am that i'm witnessing this season. i've always heard of the famed lore of winning seasons and championships past from my dad, but now i get to experience it. so, this is what winning feels like? i'll take it.

the following are a few images i captured from senior day against wake forest. i hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed being there to see manti take the field at home one last time. oh, and one last thing:

GO IRISH!!!

**images are for my personal collection only and are not for sale due to NCAA compliance rules.**