No regrets, live your life how you want to. In my other post I mentioned I knew I would change my mind, here is that change.
Only you can make your decisions, so be confident in your decisiveness.
The world we live in nowadays drops a lot of rules on you. While these rules may not be written in stone, they are expectations. The societal norms. Certain expectations, pressures society has chosen to be acceptable. Even worse challenging society has become less and less acceptable. While everyone in society wants to share what they feel your should do.
Think about all the times in your life when you have done something because you HAD TO. Did you really?
I had to go to school, I had to get good grades, I had to work, I had to make money, I had to take that job, I had to be friends with this person. HAD TO is a very common phrase in society today. You haven't had to do shit.
You have chosen to do it, but why? What drives you or drags you through your day-to-day. It can be a multitude of emotions, and truly only you will ever know them. But perhaps what none of us want to talk about is the possibility of fear, fear can account for and impact a lot of things, in many different directions, you can be afraid of ANYTHING! Conflict, disappointment, change, fear can result in so many things that impact our day-to-day lives and decisions.
Personally, I have realized I have allowed fear to impact me, and as someone who thrives on their perception of confidence, that is hard to admit.
Confrontation is possibly one of the greatest most under-appreciated aspects of life. GREAT THINGS COME FROM CONFLICT. But there seems to now be a fear of disagreement, a fear of conflict, fear of challenges. All of this with the inability to disagree or have conflict but maintain a sense of respect for someone's opinion or decision.
Good lord do I love conflict, I will conflict with anyone and anything, it is part of my foundation if I believe in something, I will go down throwing punches for it. Who cares what is acceptable about that, very few productive things have taken place in the world because someone immediately said yes.
It is however risky and scary, you are putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, by being challenging. Being willing to do it does not guarantee success. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. But maybe that is what makes it all worth it, the reward that follows a risk. The challenge that you put upon yourself.
I am 22 years old and a senior in college...
SOCIETY HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT ME LET ME TELL YOU. It is February 20th as I write you this. I am expected to be landing a full-time job, be deciding where I want to live for the early portions of my adult and "real world life". I am supposed to be finding financial security, being smart. Taking my degree and finding support and creating a career path, ALL OF IT.
Pardon my language here but FUCK THAT.
I will never do that. What is the point of that life? Where is the passion, the drive, the love of life, the risk? I do know what I want to do with my life, I want to have a lasting POSITIVE impact on the people I am blessed with in my life.
The impact that so many people have had on me. I believe that the best way to do that is through coaching, and over the past few months, I have begun that journey. Resulting in some of the hardest decisions I have had to make in my life.
But to graduate in 4 years and start my collegiate coaching career would be pretty much following the rules.
...Would there be an OUNCE of regret? Leaving perhaps the only positive thing to come out of COVID-19 on the table?...
Due to COVID-19 collegiate athletes received a blanket waiver for the 2020-2021 NCAA season, by rule not costing athletes a year of eligibility.
Everything I wrote in my previous post is true, I look back on the past 4 years and only one word comes to mind, thankful. I have grown in ways I never imagined, I have proven things to myself I never even thought possible. But I still have things to prove, I still have an impact to make, on a community, and team that I love.
I can play one more year of the sport I love, in the village that I love, surrounded by my teammates, coaching staff, and community that I love, at the university that I love and that has helped make me who I am today. The "real world" can wait, society can wait, normal is boring, normal is easy.
I have an opportunity to finish what I started, to reach the lofty goals I set for myself long ago, and do it while also growing for that next chapter of my life. I will never be able to express the extent of my gratitude to Ohio Northern, the coaches that have believed in me throughout my career, and the teammates and friends that have been there for me through thick and thin. For all that they have provided for me. But I can try.
So I will be playing my final year of eligibility at Ohio Northern University, and I will also be working tirelessly this summer and into the season gaining experiences in college coaching.
Forever and Always. Go. Bears.
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