Finally! I have a few precious moments of free time so I'm going to try to fit an article in. I reported to football fall camp... what was it, five days ago? Ten? What day is it today? All joking aside, I'm going to apologize in advance if my article is lackluster, but I ask my readers to cut me some slack, after all I've been hit in the head a few times this week!
In all seriousness, I reported to fall camp for football at Millsaps on Tuesday. I had to ask my roommate if it really was only Tuesday that we got here, because it feels like it could have been a few weeks already. The only reason it feels so much longer than it has been, is because our days have been about 14-16 hours long everyday. And when we do have an hour or so of free time, I take off in a full sprint for my bed and do an olympic worthy dive into bed and sleep as long as possible before my next meeting. That being said, I'm going to share my limited knowledge that I've gained from this week.
Even though I don't have academic classes, I have at least three football meetings a day, which is already harder than most of my high school classes. I have to come with a pen and notebook every meeting and take notes for my test on the field the next day.
So, lesson number one: Don't stay up late.
No matter how much you want to play on your phone, play that video game, or watch just one more Netflix episode; don't. The next morning rolls around much faster than you want it to, and its much harder to pay attention in class tired. Let's be honest, its never easy to pay attention in class, so don't make it any harder than it needs to be.
Lesson number two: Take care of your business.
There are going to be times where you have a choice. You can either do what you want to do, or what you have to do. For example; a teammate just ran in my room and asked me to go to dinner with him to celebrate our first night off. So I told him.........
Okay, sorry that took so long; but dinner was great. Hey, I said I learned these things, not that I live be them. But you can either let things pile up and collapse on you, or keep it under control. Its that easy.
Since I only have a very limited experience in college I have one final lesson.
Lesson number three: You will miss your family.
You will miss your friends. You will miss your dog. You will miss your bed. But; you will survive. You will make new friends, and you will learn to deal with the heart ache, and turn it into happy memories. You don't have to let sadness and longing take over your life. Even though high school was great, and the memories were amazing, they are behind you. But don't let that thought make you sad. Dr. Seuss said it best, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Live life in the present, with your eyes on the future, and heart with love of the past.