A Letter to Incoming FSU Students

Dear Incoming FSU student,

As someone who just finished up the best four years of his life at this wonderful University we call home, I feel most compelled, and dare I say qualified, to give you an idea of what to expect as you begin your experience at Florida State.

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First of all, you’ll become yourself. High school is great, but nobody’s really fully developed into who they’re going to be for the rest of their life. That happens in college.

You’ll get to soak in the [sometimes] beautiful Tallahassee weather on a scenic and constantly improving campus. Seriously, it keeps getting better, which is incredible.

You’ll get to be a part of Seminole game day. Doak, the Tucker Center, and Howser will be home to some of your most thrilling moments at Florida State. There’s nothing like screaming your lungs out as you’re united with 80,000 people you don’t know. While hopefully we’re beyond storming the court in basketball, you know the big wins aren’t going anywhere. And Sunday afternoons with the Animals is a great way to finish up weekends in the spring.

You’ll be fortunate enough to use some state of the art technology in buildings that are older than your parents.

You’ll probably eat it at least once walking to class with like 50 people around.

You’ll live with crazy roommates in dumpy places, and miss them both a few months into your new place.

You’ll listen to songs that will take you back to the exact places and times you first listened to them and they’ll remind you of how your life was when that song was all over the radio.

You’ll go to the leach and silently judge everyone in there while pretending to be so different from them.

You’ll spend more time waiting to meet with your advisor than you will doing anything in the student union, even though you keep telling your friends “we should totally go bowling sometime, isn’t it free?” (I still don’t know the answer to that question). And then after all that waiting you’ll find out that not all advisors are equally helpful, but each year you gain a little more respect for them.

You’ll probably see 4 National Championships, but then again I’m an optimist. It might take you an extra semester to graduate, so you could be there for a fifth. Jimbo!

You’ll experience a Presidential election, and everyone’s reaction to it.

You’ll love your major. Then you’ll hate it. By the time you graduate, you’ll just appreciate it.

Each year you’ll pick up the new study abroad program just to see if the prices went down like 10 grand since last year—and because this year you’re going to find a way to make it happen. Then you’ll graduate debt free and argue with your friends that actually went about which one of you made the right decision.

You'll take road trips to concerts and away games that will provide you with dozens of great stories. 

You’ll learn many things. Most importantly, whether you like it or not, you’ll experience a paradigm shift. The things you think about, and the way you think about them grows as you’re forced to take classes that challenge you. That’s what your diploma really means.

You’ll solve problems, write papers, and pass tests that simply amaze you. Sincerely, it’s not cliché, you really are capable of far more than you realize, and when you finally make it to that glorious finish line, you’ll realize that. And then you’ll look back and wish you could start it all over and do it again because the ride was so thrilling.

You’ll probably have better parking, which is awesome because trips to Strozier were always a nightmare.

You’ll take those trips to Stroz for the dreaded group projects everyone puts off till the night before. But you’ll stay up all night and somehow figure out a way to make it happen. And you and your partner will be so proud of what you made together, even though it’s a pretty sad production.

You’ll read books, watch movies, and discover standup comedians that change the way you think about everything, and lead to conversations you didn’t know could even exist.

Of course, best of all, you’ll meet some of the most incredible people a body could ever come across. Fellow students, teachers, TAs (which are really a combination of the two, but they feel like neither to you), coworkers, landlords, cops, athletes, parents, acquaintances, bartenders, and tons of others will make some impact on your college experience. You’ll share moments, hours, nights, laughs, cigarettes, answers, and spots on those wobbly bleachers at Doak with all these crazy folks who have so little and yet so much in common with you. They’ll come and go over the years. Some you’ll see around, others you won’t. And one day you’ll look back, remember them, and just be truly grateful for how they were a small part of your life. You’ll wonder if they ever think about you, but regardless, you’re just glad they have that unique place in your memory.

But then again, maybe you won’t. Your experience will probably be nothing like that, but I’m sure it will be just as magnificent. My only real tip: enjoy the ride. Soak it up, because it doesn’t get much better than being a student at the Florida State University!

Unless you’re an alumni,

-Zac Howard, Class of 2014

LeBron Goes Home, What a Story

Though it was quite different from the 2010 buildup, LeBron’s free agency this past month had everyone talking. It seemed like no one thought he would go to Cleveland until about a week or two before he announced. Now, you’d think it was a foregone conclusion based on everyone’s reaction. “You always knew he’d come back… It just feels right… This isn’t a huge surprise… It was gona happen at some point.” Really? Stop me if you’ve heard this countless times over the last four years, “Why would he want to leave South Beach… LeBron just wants to win… He’ll never forgive Dan Gilbert for that letter.”

Allow me to be the first to admit this: I was completely surprised. Didn’t see it coming at all. That may be in part because I didn’t want to be letdown if/when he came back for more titles in Miami. I think everyone hoped for it but secretly knew it felt like one of those too good to be true stories in sports. Like Tim Howard earning a win against Belgium— cool Wondo… Or Auburn winning an 8^th straight BCS title for the SEC— LOL.

But that’s exactly what this is. It’s a story that’s too good to be true. Despite my scoffing at everyone’s insincere reaction to the news, I am buying into Brian Windhorst’s assertion that LeBron has grown tremendously as a player and as a man these last four years. That’s probably in large part because Windhorst knows him better than anyone besides his wife (seriously though). While that growth can be attributed to any number of factors, I think the biggest thing was adversity. I know that sounds like one of those cliché athlete motivational quotes, but there’s no doubting the LeBron rhetoric took a dramatic shift in the national media after he left Cleveland.

People point to the Decision, but that was just the exclamation point on the bigger picture. He interrupted, and seemingly ended, the storybook basketball career he had begun with the Cavs. He was Cleveland’s hope, their golden boy and shining star that owned the sports world. Sure the city’s had a handful of decent teams in their history, but this was a larger than life superstar (you know the type that Jay Z name drops) who grew up there and tore through the Eastern conference every year. How could they not be hurt, disappointed, bitter? He gave up on the dream. And more than that, he left to go be a part of an NBA Superteam in Miami. That is what made NBA purists like Barkley turn on him. They may have been more understanding if he wanted to be the Knicks savior and own the greatest city on earth. But at the end of the day, this wasn’t Carmelo leaving Denver. This was Cleveland’s chosen one, King James, abandoning what everyone thought was his destiny.

I imagine the adversity that came with all these perceptions hit LeBron like a ton of bricks. Before the new big three nicknames could hit the press, Dan Gilbert’s letter went viral, footage of his jersey in flames was all over ESPN, and that spectacular 10-story Nike mural was taken down. With one announcement he went from hero to villain. Fair or unfair, it was LeBron’s reality. At first he seemed to be running with it, but we all knew it was an imperfect fit. That’s Kobe’s MO, not LeBron’s. Miami may have been his new home, but there was obvious discomfort that first season and it ultimately showed against Dallas. But there was no turning back.

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“Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids. These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man. I learned from a franchise that had been where I wanted to go.” –from LeBron’s letter in Sports Illustrated (James, Jenkins)

That’s probably my favorite quote from LeBron’s letter because it combines the two incredibly different epochs in his life with such a simple analogy. It’s also a good reminder that he never went to college and the general public can’t begin to understand his circumstances. The transition from high school to college is crazy enough; this guy went to the NBA after he graduated.

As a recent graduate, this comparison makes LeBron’s time in Miami relatable. Everyone has those moments freshman year when they’re like, “I have no idea what I’m doing… This can’t possibly end well… I’m in way over my head.” And then you stay up all night and somehow figure out a way to write that paper or finish that project. By the end of your sophomore year you realize you’re halfway done and you can do it. “This is gona happen. I’m going to accomplish what I came here to do.”

To finish out the analogy I guess Pat Riley was that awesome professor whose class made you fall in love with your major. Spoelstra was that magic-working guidance counselor who somehow made everything happen. D Wade was that older brother in grad school who told you everything was going to be ok. And I suppose Bosh was that friend in your major whose grades were always much worse than yours so you knew if he could graduate, you definitely could.

I feel pretty good about those comparisons because you need all of those people in college. They all play a role in you accomplishing your ultimate goal of graduating. In the end, you may not have to leave home for college, but it’s part of the process. It also changes the way you think about things. That’s what Windhorst is talking about and it’s why it makes Miami an acceptable part of LeBron’s career if he is able to bring a title to Cleveland. All the adversity you go through in college, both personally and academically, is what really makes graduating so meaningful. Now, LeBron has graduated. He’s learned how to win it all and what it takes to be a champion.

But as I mentioned earlier, people are lying if they say they predicted this would happen four years ago. If that was the case Dan Gilbert’s letter could’ve just said, “Be smart, be safe, and be easy brother, we’ll see you soon.” No, the reality is he left the city of Cleveland standing in the cold with no answers and no hope. And they let him know it. The letter, the booing, the witty “Quitness” signs were all understandable sour grapes. It had to hurt those fans and that organization to see all the money and support they invested in LeBron lead to championships for rich retirees, dressed head to toe in white linen, living in sunny South Florida.

Yet, the reality is that’s what they had to do. They had to watch him go to four straight finals. They saw him ravage the Eastern conference and win two more MVPs. They witnessed him raise that Larry O’Brien trophy two years in a row. And somewhere during those brutal 48 months, they had to find some form of forgiveness in their heart.

When the news broke this week, a good friend of mine texted me about how remarkable of a story it is, “There are a few things that you don’t see in the world. Repentance is the biggest. Forgiveness is down the totem pole, but it’s still uncommon.” It takes humility to admit when you’re wrong, especially when you’ve had a lot of success in life. LeBron did that. Dan Gilbert did that. There was a lot to forgive on both sides, but it just makes this story that much sweeter.

Sure you can be a cold skeptic and say, “Who wouldn’t take him back?” It does seem hard to picture a scenario where the city refuses to support him or front office doesn’t show interest in signing him. You might think all this talk is romanticized, over the top sensationalism. And you might not be completely wrong. But isn’t this what makes sports so special? Stories like these are what make trivial competition become larger than life realities.

The city of Cleveland has no aspirations of dominating the sports world. They don’t expect the Indians to ever be the Yankees, or the Browns to be the Patriots. I think they just want their passion and unmatched loyalty to be rewarded one day. They hold on to the bleakest hope that they’ll celebrate a championship again after waiting half a century.

So if you’ve got an NBA team I don’t expect you’ll root hard for the Cavs; you’re not a fan, no one expects you to. But you’re crazy if you’re not happy for them. If they do find a way to reach the top and win that long awaited championship, smile for Cleveland. Smile for LeBron. Smile for the story, because it seems too good to be true.

Citations

James, LeBron. Jenkins, Lee. “I’m Coming Home.” Sports Illustrated. 11 July 2014. Web.