This past weekend we witnessed all of America doing one of the most American things Americans can do: watching the Super Bowl. Great food, friends and an awesome competitive spectacle sounds pretty good, right? Well, that is unless you don’t like sports.
Let me rephrase that—I don’t not like sports; I just don’t like them like most people do. Of course I love watching nail-biting action, adrenaline pumping last second passes and incredible feats of athletic ability. However, I always saw recreational sports as just that: recreational.
I never thought of sports as most people do, as learning a lot of life lessons from it, being able to salvage some events in a game and apply that to real life. I just never saw it happening. I thought the NFL, football and all other sports were just something to pass the time.
On Sunday, Feb. 5, the NFL and the Patriots changed my mind.
The game was nothing too special for the first half—in fact, it really wasn’t that great at all. Even as someone who was rooting for the Falcons, I wanted to engage myself with an awesome nail-biter. It’s the Super Bowl, the two best teams going at it, giving it everything they got—I expected something better than the blowout at halftime that foresaw the Patriots as failing miserably at the hands of the Falcons.
There was a lot at stake here for the Patriots, even more so for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. If Brady were to win this game, it would make him the only quarterback to ever receive five coveted Super Bowl championship trophies.
Many of my friends, and myself, chalked it up as a giant loss for the Patriots. An unfortunate end of season for Brady after coming so close, and really great bragging rights for the Falcons; we shut the television off, and I went on to do something else.
But then something happened.
The Patriots started a comeback. One touchdown, two, a field goal—all of a sudden, ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a game again. As I turned back to the TV, I couldn’t help but commend Brady, Belichick, and the rest of the Patriots. On national television, they really proved that it isn’t over until it’s over.
I thought, “Wow, even if they don’t win this, you have to respect the fact that they kept going until the end.”
Then, something even crazier happened—they won. The Patriots were able to come back from such a terrible beating the first half and pull off one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history.
I realized that you really shouldn’t just give up, no matter how the odds look, and that there is always time to make a change. Then it dawned on me. I’m making a connection. I’m taking a lesson from sports and applying it to my real life.
First I felt like an idiot for being so naïve about sports and the lessons they can teach, but then happiness began to sink in. I realized that this is my last semester at West Chester University, and that although the end is near, there is still time to succeed.
There is still time to do even better than I had last semester, study harder than I ever have for tests, read more in depth in every textbook and make sure I get the most out of my last few remaining months at this place I have called home for so long.
To all students, understand that it is never over. It is a continuous improvement, a continuous development and nothing—like dates, time, test grades or anything else—can set your life in stone.
One thing does not have to end it all, and one great test grade has no more power than one bad one. Just like the Patriots and Brady, they realized it isn’t over until it’s over, and that nothing can stop you.
With that, students of WCU, go forward and make this your best semester yet. And those that are lucky enough to return again next fall, make that one better.
Alex Libutti is a fourth-year student majoring in communication studies with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at AL803657@wcupa.edu.