Behind Hot Pockets and beer, the story of a collegiate journey
Tuesday, May. 6, 2008 @ 12:38 am
An 18-year-old kid walks into the counseling office of the Ansari Business Building. The counselor is dressed in a white button-up dress shirt, light brown business slacks and a jacket to match.
He pulls out academic records with purpose to point the student in the right direction for future classes.
He gazes into the records, pulls his thick lenses down and squints his eyes. He sees a grade point average south of 1.5. He sees failing grades from beginner-level courses and below-average grades in business courses.
The tough and demanding counseling head softly spoke words of disappointment.
“I don’t think the business school is right for you,” he told the freshman.
The sports-minded kid walks out of the office thinking of phrases his coaches would use to keep him from dropping out of school.
“Keep your chin up,” “You can’t win ‘em all,” and “Don’t ever give up,” come to mind.
The only thing that keeps him in good spirits is sports.
The NBA playoffs are in the finals and Major League Baseball is in full swing.
Tim Duncan’s dominance for the San Antonio Spurs pisses him off as the New Jersey Nets lose in the NBA Finals. The Florida Marlins are playing well. Maybe they have a chance in the playoffs in September (they win the World Series).”
All the troubles with school and life diminish for the time being. Coors Light cans and paper plates with pepperoni pizza Hot Pocket residue clutter the table.
He thinks: Drop out? Don’t drop out?
Make the family happy? Disappoint and face potential disownment?
Work at Costco for the rest of life cleaning chicken ovens? Get that business degree you told everyone you were going to get?
Straddled on a chair next to a computer, the freshman starts looking for majors that have the lowest required GPAs. The business 3.0 mark was too high.
It appears 2.5 is among the lowest. Psychology and journalism are the candidates: Psychology because he got a B in the course recently and journalism because he liked reading the newspaper.
When he read the newspaper, he loved pointing out the mistakes in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
One time he opened up a box of Girl Scout cookies, grabbed a gallon of milk and sat down with the sports section.
The game was simple and cured his hunger: find a mistake or stupid statement – dip a cookie in milk and enjoy.
A bag of cookies and half a gallon of milk later, he fell asleep on the couch and missed math class.
Still without a decision, he goes to a Nevada men’s basketball game with his father, who has 11th-row seats. They enjoy the game, talk strategy and how (former) coach Trent Johnson makes mistakes.
As they leave, the now sophomore watches media members walk away from press row and head into the interview room to talk to coaches and players.
The sign says media members only, or something close to that.
He thinks that would be cool someday to enter that restricted area. He thinks about it more.
He chooses journalism.
He becomes a writer.
He finds what he wants to do. He does it.
Six years after he came to campus, his final Nevada Sagebrush article prints (today).
Scott Oxarart will graduate with a journalism degree from the Reynolds School of Journalism on May 17.
Scott Oxarart is the sports editor of the Nevada Sagebrush. He can be reached at soxarart@nevadasagebrush.com.
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