An Interview With David

What inspired you to write about crew?

If I had one thing to say about crew, then that would be crew was my beginning. Crew was responsible for making me break out of my shell; it made me into a better individual. I feel that if you make yourself a part of something then you will go to better things. So I wrote this blog for people like me, before crew. I want to show people how something little can make a great impact in someone’s life.

I also want to show people who are or were involved in an activity, that they were probably changed as well. It may not be as much as my experience, but regardless, a change is a change. People may not realize this, they may not notice the true friends they have, how their personality has changed, how they may have changed physically. I noticed and I wanted others to see as well.

I think that everyone should be involved in something, no matter what it is, that’s up to them. It can be a sport, activity, or a hobby, anything that makes you happy. As I write this blog I can see how I have changed, also it brings me back to those good old days. In the long run I want this blog to be for me and for others.

What has been the reaction from people reading you blog?

This blog is available for anyone to look at, but it is mainly subjected the members of my afternoon English class. Though just a small amount of people have been reading my blog, I have been getting good feedback. I tend to get comments from people mentioning an activity they remember doing. Its great to read about people who have been in the same position as me, how something helped them along. The class will be over soon, but I hope that my blog will get discovered by others. I will check and continue to post periodically, maybe over a different topic, I’m not sure yet.

Popularity Always Wins

In high school, there were a variety of sports and activities to choose from. Almost every school has its football team, along with baseball, soccer, basketball, you name it. There are too many to choose from, but what I have noticed was that many of our school sports were always talked about. This was because of the people who were on it, the “popular” people of our school. What I’m trying to say is that no matter the sport these people were on, the sport became one of the schools main sports.

That was the complete opposite from my team. We were the least talked about at our school, in my opinion. I don’t care because I loved everything about it, I made my life friends because of it, even though I have been off the team for a year and a half. I also got a best friend out of it, Alexa to the left of the picture. Now back on topic, when we were talked about, all they had to say were negative things. This was from the people who were not involved, so I feel that don’t really have an opinion towards us. The thing that would always get me was how people said that what we did was easy. I’m not going to compare difficulty to other sports, but easy was not in our vocabulary.

What people need to realize is that all sports are difficult, not easy, maybe in some ways but overall. Dealing with anything, not just sports to. Now just because your friends are in a certain sport doesn’t mean that all others are worthless, this is what the people in my school didn’t realize.

Stressed Overachievers

Stress is a part of our everyday life and is one of the hardest aspects of life to overcome. Whether work or family stress, people handle it in their own ways. Stress is very common in college students now and days. The average college student will have a job alongside with schoolwork. There are also students who are in programs, sports, and extracurricular activities which tend to have more stress put upon them. Would it be easier if all stress were taken out of their lives? Perhaps, but the everyday stress that is put upon overachieving students is healthy for their personalities, along with teaching them needed skills to handle stress. These few essentials are good qualities to have and it contributes to becoming successful individuals.

In S. L. Kim’s article, Springtime Thoughts, she talks about the stress put on athletes in college. Now an academic advisor on a college campus, she talks about here past years of rowing. Being a past member on her college rowing club, she experienced a great amount of stress as an athlete and student. Kim rowed every year in college, but decided to quit half way through her senior year so she can concentrate on school. Happy with her decision, she still missed the sport, but she also thought about all the opportunities she missed because of crew. Later, becoming an academic advisor, S. L. Kim deals with students that are in the same situation as she was. These students will give up class and work to make it to practice or to a competition. In Kim’s article, she is upset with the coaches who put this on their students, knowing that it conflicts with their school work. Thus this brings up her argument in her web log. Her main focus is her students and their careers as students, but she “can’t help but get angry at the nameless and faceless coaches who put seemingly unreasonable demands on my students’ time and energy.” Though she is upset with the coaches, she doesn’t understand why some students don’t quit their sport and concentrate on school. Kim realizes that anyone can quit but she understands how hard it is to quit.

S L Kim feels that her student’s coaches put to much stress on them. She also thinks that her students will do much better if they were to quit their sport or organization. S. L. Kim does not realize or perhaps has forgotten that students get a great deal out of sports or organizations. Not only can students express themselves, but they improve themselves mentally. It does however put a great amount of stress on the students, having them keep up with their activity and their schoolwork. Stress should not be looked at as a negative though. In order to overcome stress, one must learn methods to handle it. Such methods are managing time, setting priorities, making commitments, and being responsible. These skills are very useful to have practiced at a young age. Reinforcing these skills will make future stresses easier to overcome.

S. L. Kim mentioned that when she quit crew, school became much easier to handle. She could concentrate on her work and take a further interest in the class. Through personal experience, quitting crew helped with school greatly, but what helped the most were the skills learned from managing multiple activities. These skills give a student an upper hand over others. Having the ability to cope with multiple stresses makes dealing with one much easier. In order to be successful in college, and in an organization or activity, you must develop these skills early. What the author argues is that the stress is brought on by the coaches. The coaches put unreasonable demands on the students, which ultimately can result to doing poor in school. Kim wonders why students put themselves through that kind of stress, also why they don’t just quit their activity and concentrate on school. What needs to be done is this: if the student is capable of doing the work and activity, what needs to be done to help them improve. In other cases, if the student is not capable, then possibly consider concentrating on schoolwork rather then the activity.

What the author is suggesting is that students should concentrate on schoolwork rather then activities, sports, and organizations. I agree that school is more important, but students should be able to express themselves in some way. Personally I was in S. L. Kim’s position when it came to me quitting crew. I do miss the sport but I was relieved by having that stress taken away. Though I did not have an activity to excel on, thanks to crew, I was able to learn skills to deal with stress and deadlines. These skills help me manage multiple activities, and without the stress of someone without these reinforced skills. I considered crew a learning experience; it helped me develop people and time management skills. These will be helpful to have later in life and for my career.

Thank You Web Log

Different people express stress in many ways. For some they let it get the best of them and let it outburst. Others don’t show but they let it sink deep within. These different types of scenarios are not the best way to handle stress for anyone. You have to find a way to let out your frustration and emotion.

For me, I like to relieve stress through physical activity, like going to the gym or out for a run. The funny thing about it is thanks to stress I am in the best shape of my life. Many things about college to me are very stressful. Trying to juggle a job, my quest to become an officer in the Air Force at ROTC, my school work, my social life, and trying to get at most 6 hours of sleep a night if I’m lucky. This is something I was never really used to. To get to my point on how this relates to my Crew topic, I wasn’t doing any type of activity, club, or hobby. When times got tough things got ugly and I mean ugly. I finally joined crew and found my release valve. No matter how bad things may have gotten I would go to practice on a mission. I would pull on that oar with every bit of energy I had; almost as if every stroke was knocking a bit of stress off the top. I would feel great afterwards, even though I had to deal with what was bothering me. I love the fact that I could take something negative and use it to better myself. If you haven’t tried it you should.

It’s not healthy to bottle up stress; it can affect you in many different ways. You should express yourself in any way suitable for you. People may watch TV, exercise, have their favorite snack, and if you haven’t noticed already through blogging. As long as you can give yourself a chance to breath, you’re in good shape.