No Regrets --- Final Farewell

It's amazing how fast time really does fly. But it's strange how long it takes to finally set in. Just last semester, on a surprisingly sunny day, I got off the shuttle when it arrived on campus and as I was walking to my class down at Crestview I looked down the hill at the pond and it hit me. I remembered the first time I peered down at the pond from atop the hill when I came for a tour of the campus when I was still a senior in high school --- FOUR YEARS AGO! I couldn't believe it, that I had called this place home for the last three and a half years, but that in another couple months or so, it would be my home no more and just another stop on the Fagella Express.

Ironically, four years ago when I was still a senior in high school I hadn't even thought twice about where I wanted to go to college, because I had my mind made up --- UConn or bust! My dad went to UConn, I loved their basketball team (and actually thought I had a chance to "walk-on" [non-recruit] to the team), and I'm originally from CT, so that was that --- I was going to return to my home state to continue my education.

Then I took a tour of the campus in Storrs, and it was a mega culture shock for me. The campus was a city in itself, and this country boy from southern Vermont felt really out of place. For example, I went to the same school (same building) from Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, where the high school only had 85 students, and my graduating class had 29 (actually considered a "big" class). So going from that to a school where lectures alone averaged somewhere in the hundreds for students, was not the type of change I was ready for (that, and I realized that the only people who make UConn's basketball team are either black guys or really, really tall white guys --- and I'm neither of those).

All the while when I had my "UConn blinders" on, I kept receiving brochures from this tiny school in New Hampshire called Franklin Pierce, and every time they would just end up in the recycling bin with the rest of the college and university brochures. While many of the others stopped sending, Frankie P. was persistent. So finally, when I realized that I didn't want to go to UConn any more, or any school that resembled it in size, I took a look at the brochure, and ironically enough I saw that they had what I was hoping to study --- Broadcast Journalism.

So I took a tour of the campus, fell in love with it because it definitely reminded me of home, and the rest as they say, is history. Four years later when I look back on that decision I could not be happier and I have no regrets. And the number one reason for that is because I was able to do something here at the campus TV station (FPC-TV 25) by my second week of college that many are lucky if they can do by their junior year at a bigger school --- host a show, or even be "on camera" period.

So I was thrown right into the mix as a freshman hosting sports shows and once I got a taste of TV, I was hooked. This in turn, helped me to make one of the toughest decisions of my life as a young adult. Because even though I wasn't going to UConn to play hoops I still had the dream to play college basketball.

I'm the most driven and persistent person I know, so when I have a dream I go for it with everything I have and then some. I had worked very hard the summer before college, running, lifting and shooting for hours on end. So when I arrived on campus in the fall I was confident about my chances of making the team and competing for some playing time as a "walk on." I went through all the preseason workouts and practice sessions with the team leading up to tryouts and then I received the news I didn't want to hear.

A couple days before tryouts were to begin, Coach called me in his office and told me the bad news. He said that I had worked my butt off and that's why he regrets to tell me, but I wasn't cleared to play by the NCAA, and therefore couldn't try out this year. I was dumbfounded, because I followed all the steps to apply as an athlete with the NCAA and this is how they repay me --- by taking my $40 application fee and telling me you can try out next year, it's just you don't qualify for this year.

Apparently, since I was an advanced student and took 9th grade math when I was still in 8th grade, they don't count that as a high school math credit and therefore I was one short. I was really upset now, because the NCAA requirements were the same as my high school's to graduate --- 4 credits of english and 3 credits of math. And yet, I graduated. I have my diploma to prove it!

This made me want it even more than I did before and to work even harder over the next year to get better, bigger and stronger. I kept this mindset for about a month or two and trained hard. But then one day at the gym I saw a couple of guys shooting around so I asked someone who they were and they said that they had just transferred in from Division I schools. They were both really good and judging by their height and body type, I could tell that they were both guards --- my position. This is where the doubts started coming in and the "college hoops blinders" started falling off.

I started realizing that the recruited players are the ones competing for playing time and that the walk-ons just basically work there tails off in practice for a jersey, and a spot on the bench as a cheerleader. So even if I made the team the next year, I'd have to work twice as hard as the recruited guys to get playing time. And as I became more and more involved with the TV station I realized that I didn't have that kind of time to begin with. It was becoming more and more apparent that I had to choose one or the other.

Once again, it took a while to finally set in, but then it hit me --- basketball isn't going to pay my bills after college, sports broadcasting is, and that's what I should focus on. I talked it over with my family and they agreed. So from that point forward I made my mind up that I was going to do devote all my time and energy to becoming the best sportscaster I can be. And once again, looking back I have no regrets and am very pleased with my decision. So watch out world because the next stop on the Fagella Express is a TV station near you!

Now that I've babbled on and on about the last four years of my life, I would like to take this final opportunity to say good-bye to those who have meant so much to me and had such an impact on my life over the past four years --- the best four years of my life!

To everyone at FPC-TV 25, The Exchange, The Depot, and the Fitzwater Center, it has been a pleasure working and learning each day with all of you. All of you are so talented, so motivated, and so inspiring that I am sure FPU and especially the Mass Comm program's reputation and growth is in very good hands for many years to come. You're all in my thoughts and prayers and I hope our paths can cross again some day out in the real world at a TV station.

To all of my professors over the years, especially the Mass Comm ones, thank you for doing your best in preparing me for a career in broadcast journalism. I feel confident about getting a job at a TV station out of college here . . . it's just a matter of where.

To my roommates over the years for putting up with me, I hope to see you out on the battlefields known as the "real world" and good luck with everything you do.

And last but certainly not least, to all the friends I met here over the years I will miss you all very much. And just because I'm not going to be living around here any more doesn't mean that our friendship has to end, as I will most definitely be in touch and will visit the ol' alma mater every chance that I get.

As I depart for the final time, I would like to leave the reader with some lyrics from one of my favorite songs --- Rascal Flatt's "My Wish" --- that sums up how I feel about the FPC (soon-to-be FPU) community:

I hope the days come easy
and the moments pass slow
And each road leads you
where you want to go
And if you're faced with the choice
and you have to choose
I hope you choose the one
that means the most to you
And if one door opens
to another door closed
I hope you keep on walkin'
'til you find the window
If it's cold outside,
show the world the warmth of your smile.

- Joe