I didn’t fly across the country and land in Milwaukee with absolutely nothing, but I for sure didn’t have much.
I had two suitcases of my things.
I was fortunate my roommates came with the TV’s, the video games, you know, every normal thing freshman college boys need. My roommate Robert and I did go to the same high school in band together and both qualified for the Marquette travel bands that year. So I wasn’t entirely alone arriving at Marquette, but the comfort of home and having no family close by in case I needed something was a completely foreign and intimidating feeling at 18 years old.
I flew a commercial plane for the first time by myself just with my two hand-me-down suitcases that I think my parents got me from a thrift store. When I landed, I took the city bus to Marquette’s campus, an entirely new city I hadn’t been to, had no real concept of direction or where I was going and simply trusted the bus driver would get me to my destination and I wouldn’t miss my stop. I just remember being intimidated, nervous, but excited for a new adventure all at the same time. So nervous actually to the point that I accidentally got off the bus three stops too early in downtown Milwaukee in 85 degree super humid weather hauling my two big suitcases down Wisconsin avenue. I was still in my jacket and jeans because of the AC on the airplane and bus, and sweat started pouring down my back as I walked Wisconsin Avenue hoping I could find where to check into my dorm. Man I must have looked hilarious.
I was truly on my own.
My parents didn’t drop me off at college, help me get situated, help me get my books, help me understand my meal plan, my classes, my new living situation.
I couldn’t afford to travel back home for holidays and breaks much, and I remember multiple friends being gracious enough to let me stay with them and their families for the holidays like Thanksgiving, Easter, Spring Break. To this day, I’m still very appreciative to these friends from Marquette for their Midwest hospitality.
Looking back, freshman year of college was probably the most “fun” year I’d say I’ve ever had to this point. Fun in terms of the most carefree, lowest internal pressure to perform compared to all other years, and I did enjoy hanging out with friends and building relationships, like any other college freshman. Aside from a couple really good friends I had in high school, I was too dedicated to academics, sports, and music to do too much hanging out, although I did here and there. I made time for friends that first year in college but I was still extremely committed and goal-oriented.
Back to sports and academics.
A few of my teammates who ended up running NCAA Division I track and field were highly recruited based on their success their sophomore and junior seasons of high school, simply adding a cherry on top to their recruitment their senior year.
Because I was such a late bloomer on my track achievements, I wasn’t looking at any offers that my teammates or competitors were getting from schools like Georgetown, Creighton, Arizona State, Arizona, Oregon State, Oregon, Gonzaga to name a few.
My record 400m time was about 1.5 seconds off the qualifying time to run Division I at Marquette. I did have aspirations to compete in Division I track at one point and continued to train for it until I recognized the choice I had to make freshman year between D-I sports and my career.
As an athletic training student intern, where you’re working with 1-2 NCAA Division I teams specifically per semester, Marquette has a rule where you’re not allowed to compete in DI sports as an athlete. I did not see my average talent going beyond DI track to professional at the time, so I made the decision to give up track and pursue the academic program I was a part of with a 1.4% acceptance rate.
And I hit the ground running in the program. I worked 2 part-time jobs, maintained a 3.9 GPA at Marquette taking 18-20 science semester credits, not to mention my internship hours in Marquette’s athletic training program (another 10-15hrs/week). I worked extremely hard, gave up a lot of my weekends as I worked my jobs serving food to my many of my classmates and college friends at the university dorms.
The desire to be great continued. The systems and habits developed in high school carried their way through college.
I also qualified for Marquette’s travel pep band (they had tryouts) and got to attend Marquette home games for free and travel to the Big East tournament in NYC and Phoenix, AZ for the Sweet 16. UNFORGETTABLE experience, even though Marquette lost to Florida that year.
While all this happened, I was accepted into the most demanding resident position at Marquette, the dorm that oversaw 800+ incoming freshmen and was the designated “party dorm”. At the same time in my academic track, the highly coveted athletic training internship was working with Marquette men’s basketball team, only 2 students from every class would have that privilege… I was one of 2 selected out of 14 students in my class for the coveted internship. Names like Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder, Juan Toscano Anderson were athletes coming out of Marquette around that time. I saw some of the best of the best before they exploded into their NBA talent you see today.
It almost felt as if I didn’t skip a beat from high school still achieving in music, grades, and my career path while paying my own way through college, having a very small amount of time for friends and partying. I knew I was out-working and out-achieving everyone around me because of the price I was paying on weekends working late Friday and Saturday nights, and studying all Sunday. Anything I touched, I felt I could control the success and the end result.
This obviously wasn’t true, it was habits and systems and a lot of failing compounded over time, but it sure felt like I could be successful at anything I put my mind to. I didn’t come to Marquette to mess around and party, I was there to make a name for myself, which unfortunately, really started to lead to a big ego.
When we don’t humble our confidence, the universe has a funny way of bringing us back down to earth reminding us we have so much to learn.
As I alluded to in my previous posts, every big achievement mountain is followed by an equal or greater valley that has to be overcome to get to the even bigger mountain. It’s funny how life works that way, but I’ve always found this principle to hold true.
It wouldn’t be until my sophomore year, when my whole life trajectory and thought process were about to change.
I was about to eat the humblest pie I could ever imagine…
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