Getting Old

            After the summer came my sophomore year of college when I began taking my classes even more seriously, trying to soak up every bit of knowledge I could. I was always the kid in the front row taking notes, while others would be on their phones or asleep. My friends never really cared about their grades, but I did. I knew that if I had a good GPA coming out of college as a student-athlete, an employer would recognize that. My desire to make good grades was inspired by the fact that it could help me in the future, but I also wanted to make my mother proud. My mother is an elementary school teacher and takes academics to heart. My GPA coming out of high school was 2.8. This drove my mother crazy because she knew that I could do better, and I did too. All I cared about was hanging out with my friends and winning football games on Friday nights.             One night, in particular, changed the way I felt about my...

            That summer, I worked for the local lawn service company. Although I did not feel like I was living up to my potential, I was making good money as a 19-year-old kid. On top of my work as a technician, I was also making sales to people in the community. All of my friends were making minimum wage, while I was making close to $20 an hour from my efforts in sales and lawn service production. This was because almost every day I was the first person to show up to the office in the morning to collect my orders and the last one to return in the evening. I remember my boss was always so confused with my drive to work and make money, compared to the other men twice my age I was working with. The significance of this summer came from my development and growth as a young adult. It did not go my way, but I kept a positive attitude and made the most of every day and never complained to anyone but myself.              I...