Appalachian State University - Rhododendron Yearbook (Boone, NC)

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10 Experience

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came to ASU because I love sports, and they gave me a chance to play. You can ' t appreciate what this means to me until you ' ve had a chance to play for a team. If you ' ve never had that experience of being a part of a bunch of people that are working together toward a common goal, then you ' ve really missed something. You work and sweat and take great pains trying to make everything fall right into place. Sometimes you pull it off and sometimes you don ' t. Whether you win or lose, it ' s great having a chance to get out there and fight. While getting primed for the games, you get close to a lot of people. You really learn what makes them tick. Pressure does that. You learn to depend on people and have them depend on you. You learn to win, but most of all you leam how to lose— graciously. But for me at least, the most important part of any team effort in the support of the crowd. That Give ' em Hell Appsl has a way of making the impossible much easier, making it all seem worthwhile. I enjoy the emotion involved. The coaches and players hollerin ' their lungs out brings out the all in me. I don ' t think I could perform as well without it. One good thing ASU has done that I feel is real good is putting more time and effort into spirit, something I thought had died out. It ' s added a lot to the school. I feel the ASU sports program is going places. We ' ve got the poten- tial, and we ' ve got the school to back us all the way. There ' s nowhere we can ' t go as long as we realize just what we can do. Sports takes a lot of time and energy, but it ' s all worth it. Yeah, being a jock is just great with me. Some people I know get real mad when someone calls them jock. I just get proud. Experience 9

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think one of the greatest things in the world to do at ASU is to sit around with a bunch of good friends and chew the fat. I believe there are ten thousand more valuable lessons to be learned from people and their experiences than could ever be sucked out of a college textbook. The greatest times I ' ve ever had here is sittin ' around the room with a bunch of friends and talking about what we ' ve done or what we ' re going to do. You never say anything really specific or do anything worth writing a book about. You just plain make a few memories that will keep you company in the years to come when the ol ' lights aren ' t shining as bright. And I ' ve never experienced anything that could compare with the times I ' ve sat down with various professors, gotten a little mellow, realized that professors are not robots made from specific and precise molds to reel out fact after fact, but they are living, breathing, and feeling human beings. I think in all the classroom games we have to play you kind of forget about those things. All in all, people here are so ... well . . . varied I guess. All types are here, anywhere from aristocrats to rednecks. It ' s wild getting to know them and learning to be with them, to become friends. People are a trip. Experience 11