Oh, Back to School. Back to School.

Right. So I'm back in school.

I'm in the Professional MBA program at the University of Utah. It's a night program for people who don't have quite enough experience for the Executive MBA program, however it is still ranked as one of the top 50 MBA programs in the country. Not too shabby.

The only problem is that it's at the U... and I really like it so far. I mean, business school is practical. I like that, and I'm okay with liking that. My angst comes from not hating studying at the U.

I'll be honest. I wasn't always a Cougar fan. In fact, I didn't even want to go to BYU for my undergrad at first. And I didn't really root for their teams until I'd been there for at least a few semesters. But then I landed an awesome internship in the BYU Athletic Communications office (a job I wish I still had, frankly) and things really changed.

I sat court-side at basketball games and in the press box at football games for two years. I got to know the players, the coaches, the administration, and the fans. Well, okay, I'm still not really fond of regular BYU fans, but I loved the majority of the other folks. And throughout my tenure there, my hatred for the U became quite ingrained in me because the Y and the U are like faith and fear. They can't exist in the same place at the same time. There is natural animosity.

I longed for Utes to lose. And not just athletically. In life. I wanted all Utes to be the embodiment of EPIC FAIL.

But note that those sentences are are written in past tense. That's not just because I'm now a student there (I still cannot bring myself to refer to myself as a Ute). It's like I'm starting to believe that the U isn't really a horrible place.

I mean, I caught myself the other day admiring a t-shirt with a U logo on it. Come on! What the crap is that all about? Really. It's like I'm living in Bizarro World right now and Fargas is my mail carrier.

I convinced myself that going to the U for my graduate studies was a prudent thing to do, but I always said "I'll use them for their diploma and get the heck outta there!"

But mine is a soul conflicted. What I once thought I think no more. The U isn't so bad. My first class has gone really well. I like what I'm learning, and I like a lot of my fellow students. I like being on a college campus again, and I'm okay with that campus being adorned in red.

Please don't misunderstand me. When the Utes and Cougs square off in anything, be it on the gridiron or the ballroom dance floor, I'll rise and shout the live long day. I still bleed blue.

But maybe I'm okay with my classmates' successes, at least in the classroom anyway.