Farewell Column: ?College is the ultimate game?

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Last Christmas, nearly 12 months ago to this day, my parents bought me a paperweight.

It?s bronze and long and seven pens of different shapes are carved into it. Below the pens is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.

?Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.?

I brought that paperweight with me to my apartment in the Woodsides. I brought it to my summer internship in Philadelphia. I brought it back to UNH this fall. And for seven more days, it sits at my desk in the back left corner of MUB 156 ? The New Hampshire?s office.

In two weeks, when I graduate and move on from UNH, the paperweight will come with me. I just don?t know where we?re going yet.?

Three and a half years ago, I had no idea where I was going ? let alone where I was.?

I came to Durham in August of 2009, just two weeks before freshmen move-in. I was with my friend from high school, Mat. Roommate assignments had just been released and we weren?t together. The next day, we entered 10 Academic Way into our GPS and talked our way into a meeting with an official from the Housing Department.

?I?m sorry, boys,? she told us, ?but the deadline to request living situations has passed.?

?I understand, ma?am, but we just drove an hour out of our way solely to see if there was anything you do.?

Thirty minutes later, we were roommates ? Williamson 205.

Senior year and we?re still roommates ?56 Clubhouse Street.

Now, it?s all coming to an end. Along the way, I?ve learned a few things.?

College isn?t about a GPA or even what you learn in the classroom. It?s about the relationships you make. It?s about learning about yourself. And I?ll be damned if it?s not about some great memories, many over one too many beers.

I learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life here and had experiences I never would?ve imagined when I first began college. I?ve been given a tour by President Huddleston of his house. I?ve been flown to Seattle on SAFC?s dime. I?ve spoken with the parents of a suicide victim days after it happened.

Nothing you do here comes without a memory or a lesson.

Here in MUB 156, I met one of my good friends, Tom. (You may know him as the creator of @PrezHuddleson.) Back when we were editors of this newspaper together, he told me a number of things I?ll never forget.

?College is the ultimate game,? he often said. ?Well, life is the ultimate game, but within life, college is the ultimate game.?

Think about it. We?re here for something tangible ? a grade in a class that leads to a piece of paper that suddenly qualifies us for thousands of jobs. That?s what we come for, what we pay thousands of dollars for. But it?s not why we stay. We stay in college, we stay at UNH, for what it teaches us outside of the classroom.

Your GPA only matters to people if they can?t find anything interesting about you.

Here, you?re given four years to do something interesting. At no other time in your life will you get that opportunity. Take advantage of it.

You can do anything you want. You can get anything you want. You just have to want it enough. ?

On many occasions, Mat (my roommate from above) and I have been in places that we shouldn?t have been talking (and sometimes just walking) our way into them.

We?ve walked and talked our way into the Boston Bruins locker room, the David Guetta concert and a janitor?s closet in a Maine hotel where a little person?s convention was being held.

Before we?d do something like that, Mat, at 3-feet-11 inches tall, would look up at me and give me a quick pep talk.

?Do it with confidence and no one will ask questions.?

My mother looked at my ability to talk my way into those situations different.

?Sunshine follows us everywhere we go,? she?d tell me.

She was trying to say that the two of us had good luck. It?s silly, really. I don?t believe in luck.

But there is confidence and there is happiness. And I believe those two things combined create that fabricated sense of luck. And whatever that sense is, luck or otherwise, is what creates success.

I?ve spent more time in this room, MUB 156, than I care to recount. When I graduate in a couple weeks, I?m going to miss this work environment where everyone truly cares about the job at hand and, more importantly, knows how to have a good time while doing it.?

Source: http://www.tnhonline.com/opinion/farewell-column-college-is-the-ultimate-game-1.2966573

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