It's funny how in four years the world can go from right-side-up to upside-down, then back just to the way it was.
When I walked onto this campus as a freshman, the football team was entering a season with relatively high expectations. A new coach was leading a potent ground attack toward the top of the Mid-American Conference.
Four years and one spread offense later, we're right back where we started.
The basketball team is no different. Led by a big man in the center with ample guards surrounding, MAC Championships was almost a foregone conclusion. For two years, the Bobcats would rule the court.
And after falling all the way to preseason bottom dweller, next year promises what I was promised when I didn't know The Pub from The C.I.
And, of course, the Yankees were good.
Yet, all this extends much further than just the sporting world. And although I've devoted the last four years of my life to sportswriting, it doesn't take much to figure out that there's more on this campus, and in this world, than just sports.
Since move-in day and the president's convocation, it seems that just about everything has pulled this nifty little trick on me.
I find that there are two people who first walk onto this campus -those who think they know the love of their life, and those who just don't have a clue.
And, yet, for those of us who think we knew exactly what we were doing, it never works out the way we expected. But sure enough, after 196 credit hours, we've found what we were looking for all along -just maybe it wasn't what, or even who, we were expecting.
Odds are it was right in front of us the whole time -just a floor section over, a building we pass everyday on our way to the classes we dread, or maybe even just a couple streets down from where we grew up.
And for those who came here without a clue, well, I suppose life is just that much more exciting when we leave. We again set off on a journey, not knowing what the next turn is. I don't think life like that would be so bad.
I suppose maybe it would be more accurate to say the world started upside-down, turned upright, then went right back down on us, giving us a bit of a jolt as we held on for dear life trying to straighten out whatever it was we had shaken up.
And all in four years.
At least that's a more accurate description of how I felt college was like.
I suppose the only thing we can do then is just embrace what we do know and have and not let it get away. After all, being turned on your head isn't so bad, is it?
-Jepson is a senior journalism major who's headed off to Cincinnati to cover the Reds. If you have questions about sportswriting or this column, he won't answer them, but shoot him an e-mail anyway at kj336301@ohiou.edu.
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Kyle Jepson
