A Different Kind of Faith

Diary Entry: November 2, 2016

The political tension on this campus is a thick, sour fog, but tonight, it was violently punctured by a different kind of collective hysteria.

I was in my dorm, deep in the dry language of case law, when a sound began to bleed through the floorboards. It wasn’t the articulate anger of a protest; it was a raw, primal roar. I went to the window. Below, on the quad, figures were streaming out of the buildings, coalescing into a single, kinetic mass.

Their chants were guttural, almost ecstatic. “WE WON.” A pause, then a thunderous, profane echo: “WE FUCKING WON!”

It took a moment for my mind to connect the sound to the event. The Cubs. A century-long drought of belief, suddenly and spectacularly broken.

I found myself thinking of my professor, the one who wears his Cubs loyalty like a generational burden, a resigned article of faith. I tried to imagine him in that moment — if his academic composure would finally crack.