Kathy Smith

Longhorn girl living in a house of Sooners.
Not for the weak of heart.

[Vedant Nair @vedantnair__]

Much has been said by racists, politicians, and racist politicians (like Bo French) about Indians and UT Austin admissions. I thought I should shed some light so their racism could be slightly more intelligent.

I'm a brown kid. I grew up in Frisco, went to a massive Texas high school, and went to UT.

I would wager that the kids in this picture and I have practically the same background. Like me, they probably went to a massive, pressure-cooker suburban Texas high school, and survived the gauntlet to earn their admissions.

These aren’t foreigners. State law requires 90% of UT's freshman class to be Texas residents. 75% of those in-state seats go to automatic admission on class rank. These are Texans.

Texas, for better or worse, is one of the few meritocratic college admissions schemes in the country for a school of its caliber. The rules are simple. Today, the top 5% of a public school's graduating class is automatically accepted. There is nothing to game. You can’t fake being a competitive rower or have some consultant write your essays for you. There isn’t anything to steal; it’s all there on the table to compete for.

And the competition starts the moment the bell rings for your first period of freshman year. You are ranked in your class every single year, for us, #1 to #450. You knew exactly where you were, exactly how hard you had to compete. My year was even less competitive than it is today. The top 6% made the cut, so that’s an all-out war for ~27 kids to get auto-accepted into UT.

So we worked our butts off. Here's what my life was like, starting in kindergarten.

Every summer, before the school year started, I had to finish the upcoming year's math textbook.

I sweated over getting As, even in elementary school. One funny memory is walking to my parents' room, crying, to report my first-ever 89 on a report card.

I did Kumon, my least favorite thing in the world. I still hate that weird half-smile that is their logo.

I went to math and science competitions, where I always lost, and came home crying again. (Quite the crybaby, wasn't I!)

And everyone else around me worked just as hard. Actually, a lot of the kids worked much harder. I know people who took extra classes (zero period) just to boost their GPA. Who routinely slept 5 hours a night to nail every assignment they had after band practice. Who were distraught when they got a 98 instead of a 100. People who stopped doing things they loved, like sports or arts, because those classes dragged down their GPA.

People put their entire life force into getting into this school.

I wasn't even in the top 10% of my class. The competition was too good. I wasn't disciplined enough to hang with them. I got in as one of the 22.5% of admits who are at-large Texans.

These are American kids who earned their way into this school in the most American way possible. Competition. They were told the rules, they competed, and they got the number. And on Saturday they were in that stadium in burnt orange, screaming their heads off, like every other Texan at DKR or around the country. I can’t feel anything but pride for them. That they get to live the dream that so many of us dreamt growing up!

Kids like this have helped improve UT’s standing on the national stage. They made it out of the pressure cooker and placed well in Finance, Big Tech, and more recently, startups. They meaningfully contribute to the economies of our state and country. You should be proud of them too.

Overall, this seems like a meritocratic (albeit flawed) way for Texans to be admitted to our state’s flagship school. It’s racially blind. But politicians like Bo French are asking for something different. They want the student body to rebalance racially.

Surely they aren’t advocating for affirmative action, are they?

[Chris Del Conte @_delconte]

Something to think about🤘🏽🙏🏽
Proverbs 15:1-2;4
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2. The tongue of the wise commands knowledge but the mouths of fools pour out folly. 4. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but pervasiveness in it breaks the spirit..

[Chris Del Conte @_delconte]

Incredible interview by Scottie Scheffler…Sport is what you do it’s not who you are.. 🤘🏽🌎

[Texas Longhorns @TexasLonghorns]

light the tower, y'all! 🤘

#HookEm | @TexasSoftball

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@Super70sSports

[Alyssa Farah Griffin @Alyssafarah]

62% of Americans have money in the stock market - & of that roughly 25% are lower income Americans.

It’s profoundly dishonest to suggest the market crashing is just a wealthy person problem. Never mind the massive economic impacts the market has on *all* Americans regardless of whether or not they personally have $ invested

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

Pink the Border Collie absolutely demolishes an agility competition

[Mark McEathron @Mark_McEathron]

I was a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief in the Army.

I was even a Flight Instructor. This means that I trained Crew Chiefs and ensured that they completed all training annually to maintain their flight ratings.

One massive responsibility we had was to be the eyes for the pilots. We handled airspace obstacle avoidance and communicated potential risks to the pilots.

Quite often we would train as a flight of 2 or 3 birds flying in formation.

It was my job to have my head out the window and tell the pilots that the aircraft behind us was "staggered right at 3 discs". (We measured close distances in terms of the diameter of our rotor discs).

I can tell you after doing this for hundreds of hours, even when you know EXACTLY where a Blackhawk is, and you have night vision goggles on, it is EXTREMELY hard to SEE the aircraft.

These birds are designed to be hard to see at night.

The red and green lights on the side get lost in the lights of the city below. The only "lights" on top of the aircraft are called "slime lights" because they are a very very very dim green.

Incredibly difficult to see.

If you are above the helicopter, even if it has it flood light or spot light (2 different lights) on, underneath it, it is still hard to see the bird because all of that illumination is below the airframe.

Another thing people should know is just how busy things can get on the aircraft.

Pilots are talking to each other about what they are observing on the instrument panels. This means neither are looking outside the aircraft.

The crew chief might be conducting a fuel check, where we would also be looking up into the cockpit at the fuel gages and the clock.

This CAN lead to moments where all 3 people on the aircraft are all looking inside the aircraft.

It's not supposed to happen that way. We are supposed to announce when we are "coming inside" or are "back outside" the aircraft. But that doesn't always happen.

Also, in cities like DC, the radio traffic is constant and can make it hard to filter out what is important for you to listen to.

Checking instruments, doing math, reading checklists, and listening to multiple radios all at the same time is HARD. Mistakes happen.

Anyone out there telling you that they find the aircraft collision to be suspect, have NEVER been in a flight crew and they have ZERO idea what they are talking about.

Ignore them all. Better yet, mock the hell out of them.

999 times out of 1000 aircraft incidents always come down to a series of pilot and crew errors.

Humans are involved. They aren't perfect.

Tonight, my heart and mind is with the families of those involved in this tragic event.

I won't join the chorus of idiots making speculations.

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@SierraNevadaSam @txfblife Since UT Arlington also is in the UT system, most people refer to UT Arlington as UTA. The Austin campus is the flagship school so it retains the full name UT Austin.

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@BoardGeniuses To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. UGA is the gold standard & they played great. Time to get ready for the next test! Glad to be a part of the SEC. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

[Texas Men's Swimming & Diving @TexasMSD]

Texas is the standard 🤘

#HookEm

[TODAY @TODAYshow]

Olympian Ryan Crouser gave @CraigMelvin and @AlRoker a lesson in shot put and discussed taking gold at the Paris Games!

He also joined TODAY this morning to talk about his historic win, overcoming challenges and more. #Paris2024

[John Bianco @UT_Bianco]

MAKE IT A DOZEN‼️

Longhorns #ParisOlympics medal count reaches 1️⃣2️⃣ on Sunday‼️

🥇🥇🥇🥇
🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈
🥉🥉🥉

#HookEm

[Zachary @osuzack]

Well, it's our last day as conference mates, forever.

TEXAS, it's been real. I wouldn't say we get along, but at times we've shared a bond through our mutual hatred. We always get hyped up to play the flagship representing the Football State of America. Seems like every game between us since 2009 has been some insane comeback win for one of us. Good luck in the SEC.

OKLAHOMA, lol bye.

[Texas Longhorns @TexasLonghorns]

it just means more. 🤘

the first public drone show with pyro in the Americas (yes, we mean all of them)!

#HookEm

[Texas Longhorns @TexasLonghorns]

had the time of our lives 🤘

#HookEm

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@andrewabad21 @TexasLonghorns Stand on your head

[OnTexasFootball @ontexasfootball]

For the 3rd time in 4 years, Texas is your Directors’ Cup champion!! The Directors’ Cup is given annually to the best athletic program in the country, and once again, Texas takes it home! HOOK’EM!! 🤘

@Direct_Cupdates

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@LatinQueenE @nicksortor @TaraBull808 Don’t know either of them, but he clearly wants her sympathizers to know he is not the reason for her tragic situation. Clearing his reputation as custodial parent trumps “outing the mother of his children.” Those kids deserve 1 reliable, honest, non-manipulating parent.

[Kathy Smith @katgsmith]

@DevinLeeTweets @Bevo_1 @kyleumlang Same. My dad, bro & friends are Tech alums. Great people. I just think it’s ironic how this forum is overflowing w/ “Texas is a bunch of pussies” posts. Even a game chant! Now, we UT fans love a good tackle in a basketball game. 😂 No winning the fan perception battle, is there?