Falcon Footnotes

Spring break is only a day away! It is definitely well needed. My week has been pretty busy, 2 exams, and some short papers. Not my worst week this semester, but pretty close. Spring break is the greatest break ever! So many people going so many different places, so exciting. This year I have friends going to Peru and Northern Ireland for missions trips, Georgia and North Carolina for adventure trips with Outdoors Club, and Wisconsin, Tennessee, and New Jersey for services trips. I would love to do one of these, but I plan to just go home and relax. I may not be doing anything really exciting, but it’s so needed, hooray for Spring Break!!!

Nearly every weekend the campus is a buzz with sporting events; soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball and lacrosse in the spring. Everyone around asks, “Are you going to the game tonight?” I often respond with, “What about the game this afternoon?” Generally, the women’s games are played before the men’s games. I get a little frustrated with people who only support the men’s teams, because, often the women’s teams preform just as well if not better than their male counterparts. This past fall, both men’s and women’s soccer teams won national titles, and have done so in the past as well. The only thing is, that throughout the season, the women are lucky if they have 200 fans at a game. Even if their game follows the men’s game, people leave the stadium after the first game. The same thing happens for women’s basketball, who is playing in the first rounds of NCAA’s this week, while the men missed out on a NCAA bid. And this happens all year; in the spring with baseball vs softball- which the women won a national title last spring. This issue doesn’t even consider men’s and women’s tennis- yes we have tennis teams, men’s and women’s swimming, and the mis-matched field hockey, wrestling, and golf teams. And don’t even get me started on women’s VARSITY volleyball vs men’s CLUB volleyball. This trend may never change, but I am a strong advocate of equal support of all teams.

College life can easily get stressful. You meet so many new people, have so many different opportunities, there is just so much going on around you all the time. For my junior and senior years, in addition to being a full time student with 12-15 credits each semester, I have help a work study position with 10-14 hours of work a week, being a captain of the men’s swim team and having a social life. It can definitely be difficult to keep all those things up in the air and do your best in all aspects of life. College have taught me how to manage my time so much better and focus on each task when I need to focus on it. Everything comes down to balance, focus, and time management. When you realize how to manage all these things and preform well, focusing on everything when you need to, everything seems to work out for the best. I had my best academic semesters when the swim season started and had more to juggle. College life is totally some of the most fun, but deals with a lot of juggling, so it is a major balancing act.

Every January here at Messiah we have what we call J-Term. Everyone generally takes one class and you have it every day either 8-12 or 1-4 (rarely are you in class that entire time). Usually people take some sort of GenEd course and just enjoy their time with friends. We end up having a bunch of free time and just hang out, go sledding on Cemetery Hill, or just waste time doing who knows what. J-Term is also a great time to go on a short term Cross Cultural trip. Last January I spent 3 weeks in New Zealand basically just hanging out and traveling the North Island, it was fantastic. And a bunch of my friends traveled to Ghana, Costa Rica, Kenya, South Africa or Mexico. So whether you’re in Grantham or abroad for J-Term I guarantee you’ll have a blast… and that is why J-Term rocks!

This past weekend, Messiah Soccer won its 7th title on the mens side and 3rd on the womens side. Being a huge soccer fan here, I made the trip to San Antonio, TX to cheer them on. It was one one of the greatest experiences of my college life. I was also in attendance last year in Greensboro, NC when both teams also won. As I stood there in the unusual freezing weather of Texas; my heart racing, my voice fading, and emotions running on high I just kept thinking about the past 4 years that I’ve spent cheering for both teams and the great friends I’ve made on either team. It is so hard thinking I’m almost done here at Messiah. Spending fall weekends at Shoemaker Field, winter weekends in Brubaker Auditorium for mens and womens basketball, and spring weekends out supporting baseball, softball, and lacrosse. It is amazing how well nearly every athletic team preforms on the field. How such a small, almost unknown school in the middle of nowhere continuously wins conference and national titles is unbelievable. Opposing fans often ask as they walk out upset their team lost, “Do you ever get tired of winning?” All us fans yell in response, “It never ever gets old!”

Games, movies, snacks, general good times. Community. During my fist year here at Messiah College there was a group of Witmer residents who were deemed the “Lounge Rats”. Almost every night we would hang out in the main lounge of Witmer and watch movies, play games, and just hang out getting to know each other throughout the year. Many of these people are still my closest friends here at school and continue to spend a lot of time together. At Messiah College, we talk about community a lot. This group of lounge rats were a great example of how community grows in the residence halls and across campus. As time passed we “adopted” residents of the other first years buildings that would come to Witmer just to hang out and enjoy the festivities and grow in the community. As a senior looking back, those were some of the best times I had here at school. Not to say the rest of my time hasn’t been fun, but that we had a lot of fun that first year. You never forget your first year of college and I’m really going to miss this place once I graduate in May. The community here is incredible and I hope to keep these friends for the rest of my life, even if we were just a bunch of lounge rats.