In Other's Words...

Utah State University Today: 

From Russia with Love: Music Alum Stephanie Rhodes Receives Fulbright Award

If you ever ask me about my education, it will take you about two seconds to find out that I went to the University of Michigan and that I LOVE Michigan football.  Missing my weekly Saturday games this fall was slightly heartbreaking. When they didn't play in the middle of the night, I read play-by-play updates since watching the games was impossible. Not quite the same as being in the Big House or watching with a chapter of the Alumni club, but a girl has to make do.  But my love leads me to digress...paragraph point: I had a great experience in Ann Arbor.

I might not talk as passionately about my undergraduate days.  My time at Utah State was exactly what I needed. And there were so many great and rewarding moments along the way...though none of them had anything to do with our football team.  (Luckily they've represented themselves a bit better in recent years, but in my day it wasn't difficult to pass up a game for some quality practice time).  But despite life lessons learned, lasting relationships formed, and a handful of fantastic memories, the four years of my undergraduate education were some of the most personally difficult of my life. And I still haven't quite sorted through them. This summer, I set foot on campus for the first time in ages and, almost 7 years after graduation, my heart rate still quickened to an abnormal pace. Luckily, I had a dose of Aggie Ice Cream to keep things under control. Like I said, life lessons learned in undergrad.

Albeit that I now publish some of my feelings on the internet, I generally tend to be rather closed when it comes to personal difficulties...I play the role of support system quite effectively so it's what I stick to.  Seriously. It's my job. And if you knew me at USU, odds were you wouldn't have guessed that things were rough, although you may have sensed my dependence on ice cream. And then I graduated and moved on in life and, rather than deal with the emotions that I had successfully repressed for 4 years, I scarcely looked back.  And in forgetting about my undergrad, I seemed they forgot about me as well.  So when my brother-in-law and one of my dearest friends who saw me through said 4 years emailed me the link to this article published in the USU newsletter, it meant a lot.

Hard times aside, I love Utah State and I'm proud of the education I received there. And that being the case, I've always hoped to make the people who invested in me at USU proud as well.  That's a work in progress. But so is their football team. And that's life. (Meaning work and progress...and not merely football, though I am not excluding it from said statement).

Speaking of which...the advent calendar is winding down! And if you're not seeing the relationship between football and an advent calendar, don't worry. It's me, not you.  But know this:  my chocolate calendar is counting down to more than Christmas.  And while I've missed watching many a game this season, I'll be happily cheering on my Wolverines come January 1st...Stateside! Go BLUE!!!