Struggles

Back in high school, everyone talked about how much harder college was going to be and how everything was going to be a lot different. Of course I thought it would be different, but I had confidence in myself that I could handle everything and that nothing would go wrong. Turns out, I was wrong and everything went wrong. Where do I begin…

Well the first few weeks of college were pretty easy and I didn’t have any troubles or concerns. I was rushing at the frats which made everything seem even more awesome. But then, like a brick wall, I got swine flu. I was suddenly behind in all of my classes when I was doing so well and, even worse, pledging started the day I got back. I went from being a happy, free, healthy and care-free guy to overwhelmed, worried and sick slave. Not the best combination.

As if my life didn’t suck enough already, my computer decided it didn’t like me and hatched an evil plot to ruin my grades. So it broke down the same week I got back from swine flu. It took the people at ITS almost two weeks to get around to fixing my computer and giving it back to me. Lucky, I didn’t lose any of my files or anything. So I wasn’t too pissed… until it happened again. Stupid computer. Never before have I wanted to throw an electronic device off the top of a building so badly. But for real, that is ridiculous for it to happen twice in a three/four week span. In addition to that, I recently found out that none of my blogs have been posting and that I am extremely far behind on my blog.

So far I have gotten sick once and my computer broke twice. To even things up, I got mono. This put more of a burden on me as I was just catching up from everything I missed with swine flu. You would think that getting sick twice in a semester would hurt your grades a little. Well that is false… it hurt my grades A LOT. For the first time in my years going to school, I am projected to get a C in one of my classes, maybe even two.

I thought college was going to be awesome. Well, only some of it. Being independent and doing whatever you want and going to parties is awesome. Everything else, not so much.

Brotherhood

Pledging at Sigma Chi was one of the most time-consuming periods of my life that kept me busy constantly. Some say it is “the best time you never want to have again.” That is the truth, but man was it ever worth it.

The final week of pledging, I Period, couldn’t have ended quicker. There wasn’t anything too bad we had to do, and I am not allowed to go into detail about it, but essentially we had to move into the house for the week, wear a coat and tie at all times, and participate in various fraternity-related activities that helped us to better understand aspects of Sigma Chi that are extremely important. We got initiated on a Saturday morning and, believe me, it was a glorious feeling. As soon as we became brothers, the party started. We partied all day, took a small break to go to the football game, and then partied all night. Pretty much one of the best days I’ve had at college.

Being a brother is such a wonderful thing that pledging almost seems like it was too easy to get something as great as brotherhood. I can come to the house whenever I want, leave the house whenever I want, and, best of all, not take orders from anyone. I can just hang out and enjoy the company of the only brothers I know (I’m an only child). Everything I do just seems better. Going to eat with everyone seems like more fun (because we don’t have to get anyone anything). Going to the football games is a lot more fun (I get to actually watch the game instead of going to get Cokes and food). Everything is just better.

My advice for anyone who did not rush or even think about joining a fraternity (I can’t really speak for sororities): do it. It is all worth it in the end. Yes I will admit, pledging sucked. It really did. You don’t have to do anything ridiculous or embarrassing, it’s just tremendously time-consuming. But I can speak from experience – it was a time that was necessary for my initiation into the fraternity. I know it sounds like I am talking up this whole frat thing, but I’m serious. It is awesome. I am so close to all of the guys there and it is so great to know that I have 50 some guys who will always have my back and be there for me. Fraternities aren’t all about partying (though it is a fun part); the brotherhood that comes with it is much more valuable.

UNC Basketball

I’m continuing off my last blog post because, well, I love basketball plain and simple. If you are unfortunate enough to not know much about our UNC basketball team, then think of this as a quick guide that can make you sound somewhat informed if you want to impress your friends. Note: as stated in my previous post, I use the words ‘we’ and ‘our’ when referring to the UNC Men’s Basketball team simply because it is easier and requires less typing.

I’m going to start with our frontcourt (forwards and centers). Not only do we return seniors Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson and (English classmate) sophomore Ed Davis, but we’ve added: the skinny but dangerous John Henson, the can’t-really-tell-them-apart Wear twins David and Travis, and have 7-footer Tyler Zeller coming back from an injury last year. Now I might be biased, but I honestly believe we have the best frontcourt in the nation and I don’t think anyone can match up to us, not even Kansas.

In the backcourt (guards), we might have some struggles because of our youth. We have sophomore Larry Drew II returning to start at point, Will Graves return from a suspension last year to play the two, walk on Justin Watts who provides solid minutes off the bench when needed, and then we have brought in Dexter Strickland and Leslie McDonald, both of whom have loads of potential. Graves is the oldest guard being a redshirted junior so it will be interesting to see if our young guys can play ahead of their years.

So it is clear that we have a ton of depth, even if much of that is inexperienced talent. The biggest thing that I think will lead to us winning the national championship is our size. We have six guys who are 6’9” or taller. Some NBA teams don’t even have that so it is a huge advantage in college. If Coach Williams wanted to go with a big lineup, he has the option of putting 6’10” John Henson at the small forward position with 6’9” Thompson and 6’10” Davis in the low post. Henson, who just recently in high school sprouted 6 inches in 18 months, has guard-like skills in a big man’s body. Oh and his wingspan measures at 7’4”. This makes him a matchup problem for anyone, especially smaller forwards.

Trust me, Carolina basketball I going to be sick.

Finally

I love sports and football is one of my favorite sports. It is so much fun to watch and every play is exciting. I had an awesome time cheering for Carolina football, even if they weren’t as good as everyone thought they might be this year. Hell, TJ Yates is one of the brothers in my frat, so I have mad loyalty to the team. But it’s finally the best time of the year because the real season is starting: Basketball Season.

Basketball is and always has been my favorite sport. I’ve played it for as long as I can remember and was even a part of the North Carolina High School Men’s Basketball State Championship Team last year. The championship game was held in none other than the Dean Dome. Biggest thrill of my life. Playing on the court that has so much history and that so many great players have played on. Pretty f-ing unbelievable.
So, clearly, I love basketball and was pumped when UNC won the national championship last year, not long after I got to win states. But I’m going to tell you why our team is going to win it all again this year:

Yes, we (I use the word ‘we’ because it is easier that saying the UNC Men’s Basketball team, I myself am not on the team, obviously) did lose four of our five starters and leading scorers. Yes, all of them are extremely hard to replace. And yes, we aren’t ranked number one this year like we were last year. But none of that matters. All that matters is that we have a hell of a lot of talent and, once all the pieces come together, which they will, UNC is national championship bound.

Many “experts” are saying that our team is too young to be considered in the running for the national championship because the lack of experience will lead to critical mistakes at critical times. But I think we will overcome this and, despite maybe having a few roadblocks during the season, will be a mature, dangerous team come March.

Pledging

When I came to Carolina, I wasn’t planning on becoming a part of the Greek system. I was just going to go to my classes, meet some new people, chill with friends a lot, and just be a normal college kid. But that all changed when I decided to pledge a fraternity. I’m not saying that I can’t do any of the things I just listed but pledging definitely takes a toll on you and is very time-consuming.

When fall rush started, I figured I would just visit some of my friends at some of the frats to just hang out and party for free. But one of my friends who I played basketball with in high school convinced me that pledging was the way to go. I really liked his frat so I decided to make the commitment to pledging. I didn’t know what I was getting into.

Quick note: many of the things that take place during our pledging period are extremely confidential and are secret to the Sigma Chi Fraternity. I am not allowed to discuss some of these events or occurrences but I can talk about some of the more broad things.

During pledging, we are encouraged (so you pretty much have to) to be at the house when you don’t have class or another school function. This gives you a chance to get to know all of the brothers better because each one of them must approve of you becoming a brother before you can be initiated. This takes up a lot of time and really makes trying to do anything else very hard. If a brother asks you to do something like get them a drink or give them a ride, it is pretty much required that you do it. All in all, nothing was really that bad, it just takes up a lot of time. Until…

We took our pledge retreat trip to the University of Alabama. This sounded like a lot of fun until we realized that it was it a ten-hour drive to get there and that Alabama is essentially the frat capital of the south. Not so good when you are a pledge. We stayed there for two nights; one of them was kind of fun, the other not so much. Obviously, I was happy when we left that place.

So up to this point pledging hasn’t been that bad and I would recommend pledging a fraternity or sorority because the Greek system really is great. Then again, I haven’t been through I Period yet (also called “Hell Week” by some fraternities, not ours). It won’t be that bad. I hope.

Experiences

Life at Carolina is pretty awesome, minus the actual school part. There have been so many cool things that I have done that I would have never been able to experience back home. Note: the following experiences are in no particular order.

DD: For pledging we had to have “Designated Drivers” to drive around all of the brothers who might not be able or capable to drive themselves on a particular night. Why would this be a memorable experience? Well, I was assigned DD five times, from 10 to 3 each time. Let me be the first to tell you, guys who have been drinking for some time prior to you picking them up is one of the funniest things to witness. Some of the things said as I drove them to their next destination were some of the most hilarious, though sometimes incoherent, things I have ever heard. I even got to drive TJ Yates and some football players around some. Pretty cool.

Laser Light Show: One night when there really wasn’t much going on anywhere, a few of my friends from high school and I decided to go to the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Laser Light Show. I had heard good things about it so I was pumped. Obviously, we all had to get in the right “state of mind” for seeing said show, so after those events took place we went. Holy crap. It was the craziest, most intense show I’ve ever seen. It was so freaking cool – I would recommend it for anyone to go see. Naturally, it is better if you go after getting in the right “state of mind” but I’m sure it’d be awesome either way. Go check that out.

P2P Rides/Walks Home: There have been many late nights in my days here at Carolina. Many times I have taken the P2P but sometimes a meander through the campus of Carolina sounds like a lot of fun for some reason. On the P2P, I have witnessed a girl throw up all over herself and the seat next to her, without seeming phased in the least bit. I seen people “taking a quick nap” during the ride. I have seen a bus driver cuss someone out because they were being too obnoxious. On my walks home, I have probably taken several different routes back to my dorm. I have seen one of my friends who had to go “number 2” so bad that he had to grab some newspaper and take a squat right where he was. I have seen other people meandering through the campus who seem as if they are having trouble walking for some reason.

To wrap it all up, I have experienced some of the coolest things here at Carolina, even if they don’t seem that cool at a glance. But hey, I’m easily amused.

Lil Wayne

I’m a big fan of music. All music. You play something, I’ll probably like it or at least tolerate it. I’ll put my hands up cause they’re playing my song with Miley or try to run this town with Jay-Z or even put my toes in the water, ass in the sand with the Zac Brown Band. But there is one artist who I respect more than everyone else in current music: Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. aka Lil Wayne.

This may sound surprising at first because from afar he seems like a tatted-up foul-mouthed thug rapper who smokes weed and is addicted to prescription cough syrup. Some of this may be true, but that is just the cover of the book, not many people take the time to look inside the book.

A New Orleans native, Lil Wayne had a troubled childhood growing up which included accidentally shooting himself when he was 12 and dropping out of school at the age of 14. He released his debut album at the age of 17 but didn’t receive much recognition until his release of Tha Carter when he was 21 (2004). He then became arguably the most popular and successful rapper with the release of Tha Carter III last year.

How did he become so popular? Starting in 2006, Wayne began releasing mixtapes that anyone could download for free online. He wanted to do this so that everyone could enjoy his music, not just those who wanted to buy the album. I think this is very respectable and one of the best things an artist can do because it gives them exposure and shows everyone that he isn’t a selfish guy who only cares about money. In addition to this, Wayne collaborated with numerous artists and was featured on many albums that also landed him a lot of support and popularity. With this new power Wayne suddenly had, he spoke out about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation that New Orleans faced. He even went to New Orleans himself to help out those in need and used his own money directly to help his hometown recover. Again, I greatly respect Wayne for this because he is showing that he legitimately cares about people in need and makes sure that he uses his surplus of money for a good cause.

At a glance, Lil Wayne may not seem like the best person. But if you look closer at him as a person and take the time to listen to his lyrics, then you will see that he actually has respectable qualities and that he may just be the best lyricist to ever write a song. It has been said that rap is a form of poetry, which means that Lil Wayne is a literary genius.