College Life

By Rebecca Gray
HoopGurlz Columnist
Posted Wed, 10/03/2007 - 20:18 In her fourth column, Rebecca Gray discusses the challenges of college life, and the need to chill.

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PHOTOS COURTESY REBECCA GRAY

"To find yourself, think for yourself."
_ Socrates

College is full of new things and new experiences. You have to be open to new things, accept everyone for who they are and where they are from. You have to have patience and above all others, take responsibility for your own actions.

College is a very high, intense level of life. To succeed in college life, a lot of factors have to take place. First of all, you must get situated and learn certain habits. Managing your time with homework and workouts is sometimes very hard. It almost is impossible to catch up in anything you fall behind. If you have certain readings due, and you say, "Oh I will do that tomorrow," chances are you will not. As a result, you fall behind in discussions and not have some valuable information. As you get to know your schedule, it becomes very repetitive the first few weeks and is so hard to push through. The key tis to always have something to look forward to. Even the smallest thing gets me through some days, and I will admit it is hard, but works for some reason.

College also throws people of all ages together. You will have people from the age of 18 to sometimes 50. In one of my summer classes, I had a 50-year-old. I will say that was odd, but, hey, it is college. Another new thing that I learned quite quickly is that Thursday is the new Friday. The campus is crazy on Thursdays! On Franklin Street (the main street on campus where everyone goes for shopping, eating, and clubs.), it is so insane on Thursdays. Franklin Street has most of the clubs on campus and stays very busy throughout the week. I remember some of my friends were going out on Thursday night and they asked me. I was like, "Oh no, I can’t go, it is a school night!" Apparently, that is the wrong answer around college students. They laughed and laughed.

The point of giving you all this background information is to tell you to hold your ground. If you never think for yourself and let people push you around, how can you say you are being yourself? College brings about a lot of opportunities. Most are good, but some are bad and can jeopardize a lot. In my home own, a boy’s basketball player just got into a lot of trouble this weekend. It could cost him his scholarship that is waiting for him next year - and his reputation. It is not a good thing to get caught up with the wrong crowd. Who you hang out with tells people what kind of person you are. Your reputation in college is everything. It is important especially for athletes to act proper at all times. On a campus it is obvious who the athletes are. You are stared at daily, and everybody knows who you are, no matter what you do. You sometimes are held to different standards, which may seem unfair, but that is life. Your job is to learn to deal with it, and be successful.

Now, my weekend, it was perfect. After having a busy previous weekend, this relaxed weekend felt great. Saturday was one of the better days to watch college football. It was full of upsets and all-around great games. The best part is, the University of Kentucky now is 5-0. Who would have ever thought that UK would be a football school? In the newest polls, they are ranked at a respectable No. 8. This finally gives all Big Blue fans something to be proud of since we have not been ranked that high in years.

After enjoying that news, Italee Lucas and I went to a UNC softball game. They tied the first game and absolutely dismantled East Carolina 7-0 in the second. As I said in an earlier article, it is vital to get out and support other athletic teams. Those are your peers, first of all, and they are potential fans at your games as well. On the plus side, attending other sporting events allows you to respect what other athletes are doing. So many times people say, "Oh my sport is so hard, no other sport has it as tough as we do." Then you show up to a game and realize, "Wow, that looks tough." One of the best t-shirts I have seen on campus reads, "My sport is your sports punishment." That was on the back of a cross-country runner’s shirt, which was pretty creative if you ask me. Give a little respect, and gain so much more.

In college, you will be stressed, and stressed a lot. That is why you need to take all the relaxing time, and "me" time you can get. This weekend was perfect and I now feel very refreshed. Your body is pushed to the max. for most of the week, so you must give it time to recover so you can perform at your peak. This weekend was really "chill" and I hope yours was as well. I am ready for another week in good ole Chapel Thrill.

"No matter how much pressure you feel at work, if you could find ways to relax for at least five minutes every hour, you'd be more productive."
_ Dr. Joyce Brothers

Stay cool and keep ballin' ya’ll.

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Rebecca Gray is a freshman on basketball scholarship at the University of North Carolina. A 5-foot-10, sharp-shooting guard out of Georgetown, Ky., Gray was ranked 47th in the 2007 class and an Honor Roll selection by HoopGurlz.com. She was named Miss Basketball in the state of Kentucky after averaging 25.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 4.8 assists during her senior season at Scott County High School, where she also finished as its career scoring leader with 2,907 points.

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