🏟️ A Day in Columbus
When Marcus woke up in his room in Morrill Tower, the first thing he heard was the distant thump of bass echoing across the Olentangy. It was game day in Columbus, and even early in the morning, the city felt like it was stretching awake in scarlet and gray.
But before he could think about tailgates or the roar of the Shoe, he grabbed his backpack and headed toward the Health Sciences campus. As a pre‑med student, Saturdays weren’t always free. Today he had a lab in the Biomedical Research Tower, where he and his classmates were practicing clinical skills and reviewing case studies that felt like previews of their future careers. Their instructor, a physician from the Wexner Medical Center, moved between groups with the calm confidence of someone who had seen everything.
By late morning, Marcus stepped outside into the crisp air and joined the river of students flowing toward Ohio Stadium. The sidewalks buzzed with energy — alumni grilling outside RVs, families in Buckeye jerseys, and students painting their faces with Block O’s. The smell of tailgate food drifted through the air, and the Best Damn Band in the Land could be heard warming up somewhere behind the stadium.
He spotted his friends from the Pre‑Health Club handing out flyers for a volunteer event at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He helped them set up a table, then jogged to meet his roommates near the rotunda. The moment he stepped inside the stadium, the noise hit him like a wave. More than 100,000 fans, all pulsing with the same heartbeat.
When the band marched onto the field and the crowd erupted, Marcus felt that familiar surge of pride. There’s nothing quite like being a Buckeye on game day.
After the final whistle, he and his friends walked down High Street, where the sidewalks were alive with students celebrating the win. They grabbed food at a packed campus spot, then wandered into the Ohio Union, where a student organization fair was still going strong. The BuckeyeThon team was dancing to raise money for pediatric cancer research. The Global Health Initiative was recruiting volunteers for a medical outreach project. The STEM Outreach Club was prepping for a workshop with local schools.
Later that evening, Marcus headed to the Thompson Library, its glass façade glowing against the night sky. Inside, students filled the study rooms, some reviewing chemistry notes, others prepping for anatomy exams. He found a quiet corner overlooking the Oval and opened his laptop, still wearing his scarlet jersey, still carrying the energy of the stadium.
As he studied, he thought about how perfectly the day captured what he loved about Ohio State: the balance of ambition and tradition, the way you could spend the morning learning medical procedures and the afternoon cheering with thousands of fans who felt like family.