Are gusties really golden?

Jonas Doerr – Opinion Writer

Are Gusties really golden? We are the Golden Gusties, after all, but would it be more appropriate to call us the Yellow Gusties instead? Before you throw me out for sheer ridiculousness, let me explain.
I’m not talking about the people actually looking golden. I have never seen anyone resembling C-3PO wandering around campus, and I’m sure I never will. Maybe some people are closer than others with golden bracelets, piercings, and whatnot, but that can’t be what “Golden Gusties” is referring to.
The next possibility is that it is referring to all the gold on campus. This is, in fact, false. In all the long months I have been here, the only nuggets I have found were of the chicken variety. And it is hard to claim that much of our campus is decorated with any sort of precious metal.
Perhaps, then, it is talking about the lovely golden sunsets our campus enjoys. It is not widely talked about, but the sun sets on our campus every single evening of the year! However, the remarkable consistency of our sunsets is matched at numerous other institutions, so that can’t be what sets us apart as “Golden Gusties.”
Maybe the gold is a metaphor for the riches left in Gustie caf accounts at the end of each month? No. Probably not that either.
The most likely scenario would seem to be that our school colors are black and gold. Except they are not. They are most definitely, certainly, and indubitably black and yellow. While gold and yellow are often confused for the same color, they are not. Gold is a shade of yellow that is reflective because of loose electrons in the metal. This makes gold appear as a shiny yellow to human eyes.
If you take a walk around the Bookmark and check out the merch, most of it is not shiny. Therefore it is yellow. Ironically, over the doors to the Caf “Golden Gusties” is painted in black lettering on a field of non-shiny yellow. Take a walk around campus and you will be hard pressed to find many things that are gold, while yellow is everywhere.
So are we really Yellow Gusties, then? It does not have the alliteration of “Golden Gusties,” but it is better to be right than poetic. Probably. Is it that bad to be a Yellow Gustie?
Well, I think it is. Yellow Gusties makes it seem like Gusties are yellow-bellied. This is not another word for the hooligans who wear body paint to sports games. Yellow-bellied is actually another word for a coward.
Now that seems a little harsh! How could our “Bold and Gold” Gusties be scaredy-cats? Maybe if they’re not gold, they’re not bold either. What would it look like if this were actually true about Gusties?
Well, I think at one point I was a yellow-bellied Gustie. Last year I wanted to start working out, but I had all kinds of fears. Would I embarrass myself by lifting puny amounts of weight? Would a barbell smush me into a pancake? Would a big scary guy I looked at wrong smush me into a pancake?
Fears like this had been keeping me out of the weight room for a long time. Finally, I determined they would not any longer. I went to the weight room. Nobody smushed me. I didn’t smush myself. I probably did embarrass myself, though. Overall, however, overcoming my yellow-belliedness brought me satisfaction from eventually becoming comfortable with the weight room.
This, I think, is what it is to be a Gustie. If you recall, gold is yellow when it is shining. Remember our rouser? Of course you have it memorized, but let me remind you: “Gusties will shine tonight, Gusties will shine HEY! Gusties will shine tonight, Gusties will shine HEY! Gusties will shine tonight, Gusties will shine! Beat ‘em bust ‘em that’s our custom, Gusties will shine!” In case that was not clear, let me explain: Gusties shine. Which makes a yellow gustie into a Golden Gustie.
So whatever fears are making you a Yellow Gustie – fear of reaching out to people, trying new things, asking for help, or whatever it is for you – look those fears in the face and smash them. That is how Gusties shine. Because no, we are not Yellow Gusties. We are shining, and we are Golden Gusties.