Texans in Idaho
Lone Star State students make their presence known
Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the egos of its residents, some might say.
Texophiles,
as they are sometimes referred to, are known both in Rexburg and nationwide for having an extreme loyalty to their home state of Texas.
What is it with some people from Texas?
said Scott Cooper, a junior from Idaho Falls. What makes their state better than any other state?
It’s true that not everyone from Texas shows off their Lone-Star patriotism, but there are those that do.
We’re just cooler, simple as that. Actually, I don’t know really, we just have a loyalty to our home state,
said Ashley Byrd, a junior from McKinney, Texas.
Likewise, Ashley Clark, a senior from Italy, Texas, believes her state is the best.
I know everybody thinks we’re stuck on ourselves, but the great thing about Texas is you can see 10 miles down the highway because it’s so flat … the sky is bigger there because there are no mountains or anything to interrupt that horizon,
Clark said.
Byrd and Clark both believe that not everybody has the right to boast about their Texas pride, though.
There are some people who moved [to Texas] in high school and they’re like,
Byrd said.Well I guess I can support Texas too.
And there’s others who were born in Texas, and then moved away and say the same thing. I mean, it’s understandable that everybody wants to claim Texas, but I was born and raised there, so I have a right to show off my Texas pride,
Estrella Strasser, a BYU‑I alumna from Denton, Texas, is one of those Texans who wasn’t born there. However, her motto is, I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got there as quick as I could.
Another thing that many non-Texans can’t understand is the popular Texas insignia that adorns many cars, bedrooms and living rooms of resident Texans at BYU‑I.
Texas has such a unique way about it that you are excited to let people know that’s where you’re from. It allows people to find out you’re from this state that they’ve always heard so much about,
Byrd said.
Similarly, Clark displays her Texanality
with like-minded paraphernalia. It’s true, I did have a Texas flag in my apartment for four years while going to college here, and I still have a Texas flag sticker on my truck,
Clark said.
Byrd also said that some of the Texas patriotism stems from peer-pressure. We’re not all obsessively patriotic, but there are a lot of Texans who feel they have to be this way because other Texans are.
Texas does have its own quirks that set it apart from other states, though.
According to the University of Texas at Austin, The Constitution of 1845 (the resolution that allowed Texas into the Union) stated that Texas had the right to divide itself into five states. That right still applies today.
Six flags have flown on Texas soil, thus the reason behind the theme park of the same name. They include the United States, the Republic of Texas, France, Spain, Mexico and the Confederate States.
Texas is one of the few states whose flag typically flies as high as the United States flag. Contrary to popular belief, any state can do the same, but most choose not to. In almost every other American state, the state flag is flown at a lower level than the national flag.
Even with the occasional Texas jokes and the inevitable stereotypes associated with Texans, for Clark, Byrd and dozens of other Texans on campus, they couldn’t imagine being from anywhere else.
It’s always sunny. People there are nice. There’s culture,
Byrd said. People of all ethnicities … and the greatest basketball team [The Dallas Mavericks] in the nation reside there. Don’t mess with Texas, because it’s the greatest state ever.
