Football Walk on Tryouts

I recently tried out for the ECU football team as a walk on, on March 17^th.  I played football in high school and my dream was to always play at the next level in college.  It turned out I did not receive a scholarship to play football in college.  This made me want to challenge myself and try to walk on for ECU.  I was as nervous as can be the day of the tryouts.  I wanted to make the team really bad because I missed being a student athlete.  Seeing the football games at the beginning of the year, increased my desire to play football again.  To my surprise, I was informed with great news that I made the spring team at ECU.  This meant that I made the first tryout and that I would get to practice with the real team during the spring until it was time for the second and final cuts.  I have been blessed to practice with the team during the spring as I got to experience what playing football at the next level was like.  Spring practice is now over and to my surprise I have not been cut yet.  Lots of walk-ons have been cut but I am still remaining.  My position coach told me to keep doing what I am doing and to keep my grades up.  Hopefully this is a good sign that the coaches will keep me on the real team.  I am still praying!

Rec Center

ECU has a nice recreational facility that is right next to my dorm.  It includes a beautiful workout facility, six basketball courts, indoor track, indoor and outdoor pool, racquet ball rooms, and etc.  I enjoy the workout area and the basketball courts the most.  When I am bored and want some exercise, playing basketball is always the option I select.  There are always competitive and skilled students on the courts who make playing basketball fun.  Me being an ex-high school varsity basketball player, it feels good to play the game I love in my free time since I am no longer on a team.  Usually after I am done playing basketball, I will go and workout.  There are usually a lot of people in the workout area which can be a struggle sometimes. This can get frustrating because a lot of the machines and free weights will be occupied by others when I am trying to get a good workout completed.  It is great to have such a nice recreational facility that is included in my tuition fee.

Campus Food

One of the things I love about ECU is the access to all of the food.  With eating being one of my favorite hobbies, I love the fact that the campus serves food all throughout the day.  In high school, I would have to wait until it was lunch time to eat and that would be my only time I could eat at school.  I am a big eater so this did not always satisfy my appetite.  Lots of times I would get hungry about an hour after lunch time but would have to wait until I got home before I could eat another meal.  In college I don’t have to worry about this.  There is a dining hall that doesn’t require a personal lunch number to order food like high school did.  In high school, the cafeteria ladies would never tell the kids if they were running low on money.  If there was a day where a kid ran out of money in their account, there was a good chance they would not eat that day unless they got someone else to pay for them.  In college, the dining hall meal plan is paid in advance for the entire year and all it requires is a swipe of your one card and then you have access to all the food you want.  The food in the dining hall is delicious and it stays open throughout the day until late at night.  ECU also has some delicious fast food restaurants, such as Chick-Fila, on campus that are a part of a student meal plan.  With all of the food options on campus, I usually eat after every class until I can’t eat anymore.

Having a Roommate

Before I came to ECU, I didn’t know what to expect about my roommate.  I was used to having my own room at home that I didn’t have to share with anyone.  Sharing a room with another person didn’t sound too appealing to me because of the lack of privacy I would have.  I didn’t know if I would have a roommate that would distract me while doing homework or a roommate that would keep me from having a good night sleep.  Even though I was worried about my privacy, the thought of meeting someone new that I could communicate and hang out with on a daily basis, interested me.  It turns out this was not the case at all.  When I first met my roommate in the room, he seemed like a fairy nice guy.  He was a little socially awkward when we first met but I thought it was just because he was shy.  It turned out I would have to start most of the conversations and when he would answer me it would be one word responses.  He was very nice but not someone I had a lot in common with and could hang out in public because of his lack of communication.  We ended up making our own friends, ones that we feel we can relate to.  My roommate and I are still very friendly towards each other whenever we are both in the room.  Having a roommate that isn’t in the room all of the time, who can give me some privacy, who goes his separate ways, and is friendly when I see him in the room, is actually the type of roommate I prefer.

 

Living in a Dorm Room

Although I don’t mind living in a dorm room, I am starting to miss my own room as the year goes on.  My dorm room is very small compared to my room back at home.  The fact that I have to share the room with my roommate, limits the space opportunities I have.  I don’t have that much space to store or hang my clothes because my roommate and I both have small individual closets.  The fact that I brought a lot of clothes to ECU didn’t help either.  I quickly ran out of space in my closet and the drawers for all of my clothes.  Now I am forced to leave the clothes that are dirty in my big laundry bag.  I can’t wash them all at one time because I wouldn’t have enough room on my side of the room to put my clean clothes away.  Since the room is so small, the beds themselves, take up a lot of space in the room.  One of the reasons I’m excited about summer, is the fact that I will have a lot more space for my clothes, more room to move around, and I will be able to sleep in my own queen size bed again.