Picture your daily routine as a UT student: walking to class, attending org meetings, and PCL study sessions. UT has an ironic way of making one of the largest public university systems in the world feel small. Every single moment that goes by becomes a story. My Texas story and the story I am writing are not the same, but they become more intertwined with every day I spend as a student on this campus.

A bright, young undergrad sits and studies in the 1974 business school library across from Gregory Gym. Is that something that you can picture as a part of your modern routine? Sure. 

What if you were waiting on your wife, the senior clerk typist at Greg, to go home to your trailer in married student housing? Less typical, perhaps.

He sees her walk down the large stairs through the window that faces the gym. Beautiful is the only word that comes to his mind when he sees her. He packs up his books and steps out to greet her. They walk home, hand in hand, like nothing else in the world mattered but each other. They knew that their love was special, something that needed to be cherished and cared for. And they were trying to do just that. 

Then, the noise starts. Protests of the Vietnam War surround them as they walk down what we’d call Speedway. They tried to tune them out, but the glaring photos of President John F. Kennedy and raging war shots echoed down their walk. He smiles at his bride. He was there; he knows what really happened and is proud to say that he fought for his country and his family. But his campus isn’t. 

Glimpsing into the lives of UT students a half-century ago, personality is just as big of a part of campus then as it is now – just in different ways.

Back then, UT played host to some of the largest Vietnam War protests in the country. 50 years ago, The Daily Texan published editorials pleading with the U.S. government for a ceasefire. 50 years ago, young men were being killed and injured by the hundreds daily in Vietnam. And 50 years ago, my grandfather, William Anthony “Bill” Wilson, served two Vietnam tours before starting his academic journey at UT studying government and philosophy. 

Accompanied by his new wife, Huggette Dufreane Wilson, they lived in some of the oldest accommodations that no longer stand today — married student housing trailers. Huggette worked at Gregory Gym to support Bill during his college years, often alongside fellow wives of students. 

While my grandfather looked like a typical student on the outside, he could not have been farther from it. He had no time for the typical college experience. They lived on a small income. 

In 1975, my mother was born near the UT campus and spent her first three years of life as the daughter of a current Longhorn. She often likes to claim that she remembers learning to swim at Gregory Gym.

In our family, my grandfather’s pride in the military has always been a known fact. But during our interview, he recalled “times of not wearing (his) uniform on campus in fear of being spit on, keeping to himself in discussions of the war in his government classes, and being told to be ashamed of his service.” 

Thankfully, years after the war was over, appreciation for Vietnam veterans like my grandpa began to rise. I had the pleasure of traveling with him to Washington D.C. a few years ago and watching him tell stories about people who have engravings on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He has never forgotten, and therefore I will never forget. 

And so, 50 years later, I not only have the absolute privilege of sharing a school with him but also the ability to tell his story. If it were not for my grandparents’ courage and commitment to a UT education, so many incredible things would not have happened. Because of them, my UT experience gets to be a continuation of what they started. Every time I walk past Gregory Gym, I see them. Every time I walk past the turtle pond, my grandfather’s favorite place to study, I see them. Every time I go to Dirty Martins, I wonder if I am sitting at a table where they once sat. 

They remain an integral part of why I have always felt at home at UT. Their legacy has been bestowed upon me, and I never forget.