Just not too long ago, a friend of mine, who I looked up to my freshmen year of college at Barstow, texted me...
I remember coming back from Food4Less after doing some grocery shopping and I see three of my teammates (two which were my roommates) sitting at the dining table drinking some beers. All i felt at the time was "We have beer in our apartment! Coach told us no drinking on the team, I'm not 21, I'm gonna get in big trouble!"
I put my grocery away and sat with them around the table only because they were using my couch that was in my room. So as I sat and watched them drink, Shawn, a guy about four or five years older than me on the team put a beer in front of me.
I refused to drink it and told him why I didn't want to drink at all, maybe until I turn 21. My reasoning was I didm't want to turn out to be like my father. I just hated it when he came home drunk from a night of drinking. He respected my answered and my roommates Dray and Rudy said something about it too but I hardly remember what they said. Shawn just told me that if I wanted to try it, just ask and if you don't like it, don't drink it.
As I still sat there and listened to them talk, I decided to open my first can of beer. It was America's finest beer, Bud Light. Needless to say, they were in shock that after I talked about why I didn't want to drink, I decided to have a beer.
I dont know why I did open that beer that night but some part me said, "You're living on your own. You're in college. No ones really judging you. Just have some fun. Make stupid decision. Laugh at them. Live and learn."
At the end of the semester, literally the day before my last paper was due, I was playing beer pong with my teammates before we went off to our hometown for the summer. For some of us, we were not coming back to Barstow, some us went back the next school year. But that night, I remember walking back home after winning game after game of beer pong and slept for three hours before I was throwing up in the bathroom for three hours. Then slept for another three hours, woke up for class and drove to class hungover. That was the first time I was hungover and didn't know how to handle it.
All I recall is getting out of my car in the 107 degree dry, desert weather and sitting outside my classroom waiting for the professor to show up. It was 10 minutes past the time when class was suppose to start and I had to go throw up in the bathroom.
Finally the professor came, opened the door and my initial thought was hand him the paper and leave, but ended up giving a five minute lecture. And the five minute lecture was the longest lecture of my life!
After that was over, I gathered myself and drove back to my apartment and grabbed a ice pack and went to sleep.
I didn't mention that my plan that day was to have everything packed in my car and the apartment cleaned, ready to go home after class.
I got home around 10 a.m. and slept in until 4 p.m.
Still with a slight hang over, I looked around my apartment and it was an absolute mess. My room just needed to be cleaned up a little bit but the kitchen still had food and trash, which was getting molded, the living room had a dresser and a mattress that a teammate used to sleep in and in my roommates room, lets just say not even Mr. Clean could have done the job. Just a mess everywhere.
Luckily, a loyal teammate was leaving the next day and helped me clean up the mess my roommates left in the apartment. it took about two and a half hours to clean everything up. But the carpet was all torn up from our dog, Oso, that we picked up for free at the local Walmart at the beginning of the semester.
I remember coming back to my home in Torrance around 7 p.m. (its a two hour drive from Barstow to Los Angeles) and telling my mom that I fell asleep and had to clean up a little bit around the apartment.
I transferred back to El Camino and made the team for the second time. Ended up redshirting that year but that year, staying with the team when I could have easily just walked away, was the best decision I have ever made.
I told this story many times; I had the best year of my life at my red shirt year at El Camino. We went to the state championships, won conference, swept regionals and super regionals, and made friends that I call family now. Without this experience I don't know what life would be like for me today. Words cant even explain the experience I had.
Then coming to Mount Mercy has opened up my horizons in life. People are so generous out here and made many memories during my short time here.
In my first year at the mount, we would always go out every week, though I did stay in for the most part during the first half of the fall semester. But would always find ways to go out and do something, where if it was go to a bar in Iowa City, get written up in C1 or C2 in Andreas for drinking and being too loud, going to Paddy's after our Thursday games to go drink and sing karaoke, or catching last minute drinks on a Sunday night after coming back from a long road trip.
This year, my senior year, has been a bittersweet feeling. Lately I think about all the memories, the good and the bad, I had made over the years and seem to overwhelm me. Seeing friends come and go, going to graduate and living in reality and with baseball not being the same after this year, sometimes I want to time to slow down so I can just enjoy the time with everyone.
When things come to an end, all they become are memories and those memories become stories. Then you start your new chapter in your life...
The point of my blog today is for you college students that are so one minded and focused on school, go out and experience new things. Don't be that person that stays in your house or dorm room all day studying and watching movies afterwards. Grades are important to pass your classes and keep your GPA to go to grad school and all, but there are people that go out and get the same results.
So what if you hate drinking, you don't necessarily have to drink when you go out. So what if people judge you, you are going to get judge any place you go. So what if you are not so popular, go make new friends anyways.
...
When I look at my dog Oso, it reminds me of my first experience of college and its something I brought him home with me and it reminds me of my college experiences because he has been with me since my freshmen year of college.
So go out, experience new things and have fun. How do you want to remember your college experience and when people ask you how your college life was, how do you want to tell your story? you only have four years to do it...
-Jun
"You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does..." -Tom Petty
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