You've seen this video, haven't you? If you haven't, PSA: a Florida State football player punched a girl in a bar. AND ANOTHER football player got arrested for battery less than a week later. What a terrible school, right? WRONG. People make bad decisions. People have no morals. College football players can be idiots. Coaches don’t always respond how you would like. And those football players don’t always get the punishment you think they deserve. |
But before you start talking about how terrible a school, sports program, or for some reason even a police force of the city (tbh I still don't get that one) is….
Go to the campus and walk around, when it’s not game day. Go to the library. Eat lunch in the dining hall. Talk to the only child who is living with a roommate for the first time in a room that is less than 250 square feet.
Talk to the girl who completely changed her mind about what she wants to do with her life and has a different major and is now on the way to her new dream. Talk to the student who just spent a semester in another country, learning more than she ever thought she would.
Talk to the guy who had 4 tests this week and has spent 30 hours in the library in the last 5 days. Talk to the guy who met his future wife or the girl who met lifelong friends (and made lifelong memories) this semester.
Talk to the person who is the first in his family to graduate from college. Talk to the student who left everything she knew and is now a totally different person than when she left home in all of the best ways. Talk to the parents who can see that change in their daughter and see the joy in her eyes when she talks about her school, the parents who can't help but to love this school more than the team they've always called their own.
Consider the 35,000+ other students who are working their butt off day in and day out to do well in school and be the best person they possibly can be. The ones who are studying to become doctors and lawyers and psychologists and scientists and so much more. Because the story of each of those students is so much more important than the story of the 2 the media tells you about.
Ask those 35,000+ students about the opportunities they’ve had, the classes they’ve taken, the tests they’ve studied for, the scholarships they’ve earned, the clubs they’ve joined, the friendships they’ve made, the internships they’ve landed, and the dreams that they’ve dreamed and then accomplished all because of their university.
Or better yet, attend the school yourself. Experience the fact that a university has so much more to offer than football games. Experience the pride that can only come from knowing that you attend what you will always believe to be the best university on the planet, regardless of whether the team wins or loses and some of the players make stupid decisions. Understand that this pride doesn’t come from the behavior of the minority but from the family you’ve found in the majority…
Do all of that BEFORE you feel like you have the liberty to judge a whole university based on the actions of a few people because they play football there.
Because once you do all of that, there will be no doubt in your mind that a university is
SO much more than football.
Or better yet, attend the school yourself. Experience the fact that a university has so much more to offer than football games. Experience the pride that can only come from knowing that you attend what you will always believe to be the best university on the planet, regardless of whether the team wins or loses and some of the players make stupid decisions. Understand that this pride doesn’t come from the behavior of the minority but from the family you’ve found in the majority…
Do all of that BEFORE you feel like you have the liberty to judge a whole university based on the actions of a few people because they play football there.
Because once you do all of that, there will be no doubt in your mind that a university is
SO much more than football.