Throughout the past four years, I aced tests and bombed tests, built relationships and destroyed relationships, made money and lost money, and almost had my collarbone blown through the back of my shoulder-pads by Adrian Peterson.
Upon reflection, I’ve concluded that life is about choices, and choices matter. College is an experiment in choices – good ones and the other kind.
Reasons for choosing to attend OU are as diverse as our student body. I chose OU so I could walk on the football team at linebacker.
Then A.D. ran a counter during practice and I met him square in the hole. We were preparing to face Oregon in the Holiday Bowl.
Finals had come and passed. Campus was silent except for the colliding bodies at the Everest practice facility.
The impact sounded like mortar fire. A.D. bounced off and darted down the field. I was sure that my collarbone was in pieces. Thankfully, my collarbone remained and practice continued.
I rode out football through the spring. After that, I re-focused my ambitions. As any athlete will tell you, playing a sport is like getting your arm perpetually twisted – you’ve got to know when to say “when.”
College athletics separates you from the populous. After I chose to walk away, I felt like college started all over.
OU was this make-believe world of overachievers, underachievers, parental dependents and instant gratification. College, I discovered, was unique.
Where else could the decision to refrain from responsibility shape you just as profoundly as the decision to adhere to it?
Papers, tests and presentations may be worth 20 percent of your grade. But try quantifying a night of carefree fun with your friends. How do you measure the creation and growth of relationships?
Simply put, you can’t. At the end, the times you remember and the lessons you learned are with your friends.
These lessons have no point values and never show up on a transcript. Laughter and memories, however, last much longer.
Certain choices, I found, were non-negotiable.
You cannot ever skip OU/Texas. Going to the OU/Texas game is like seeing “The Shawshank Redemption” for the first time – it stays with you.
Dallas turns acquaintances to friends and friends to family. I accept that debauchery is not the preferred glue of relationships. But times like this transcend the mistake.
They create something worth more than the cheap beer you share.
College is also about ultimate truths – trends no campus can escape.
Stoners will get stoned. Athletes will wear their free stuff. MIP’s will be thrown out like candy by bored cops.
Frat guys will rock Sperry’s, the Polo Shirt and Crokies and get way too into intramurals.
Sorority girls will bob around in Uggs and short shorts and listen to gangster rap. Dates will puke at date parties. Sex will be lied about. Receipts will be tabulated the next morning in utter contempt for outrageous spending. The Afflicted will roam.
And “Poison” will be the place it all goes down (747’s affectionate Greek label).
Consider ultimate truths and wild weekends carefully because grades, we all know, matter. Grades get you internships. Internships get you a job. A job gets you paid. Learning is secondary – a nice byproduct of the eventual goal. We chose to come to college to earn a degree and get paid.
Balance the party and the Poison. Make choices and accept that you will not always choose correctly. Success is not what I or some magazine or the Dude Lebowski tells you it is. In the end, an impromptu Thursday night trip to Stillwater may bring you more success than extra study time for next week’s final. And, of course, vice-versa.
Maybe I am too cynical. Surely we aren’t just greedy party animals sliced from the same Polo horse cookie-cutter. We are rational people who understand college is unlike any other period of our lives.
For most of us, there is no mortgage, no boss and no kids. Never again will we have more time, less responsibility, student discounts and actual disposable income. Choose to embrace this fantasy of freedom that becomes less and less cool the older you get.
I came to OU thinking the greatest thing that would happen to me would be sprinting across Owen Field on game-day.
But, choices led me another direction. Choices will lead you another direction. And, if at the end of four years you realize the choices were worth it, than success was achieved.
Then you can raise your arms in the air and, in the words of Johnny Drama, scream for all of Norman to hear: “VICTORY!”
-Matt Felty is a public administration senior.
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claudeBEAN 3 years ago
You should have forsaken the trip to Stillwater to study, and maybe you would have written a better quality article. I hope you realize that these "grades" and "transcripts" allow you to become what you want and experience everything in the world. They propel you out of this little pooty town we call Norman.