Wins, Losses, Nostalgia

Hi friend! Hope this Monday finds you well. First things first: binder update. I finally ordered them from Amazon and sent them to the correct address. I should have gone with the half inch though, because they are way to thick.* You may see me walking around campus, appearing to be smuggling a small Asian family into America.

We had a couple wins and a couple losses the past few weeks. Win: I am the director of the marketing lab. I hope I get to play with schematics, but that may be a different kind of lab. Loss: I applied for a non-profit board fellows program and was rejected, which I am taking as a signal I should reconsider any charitable donations of my time. Clearly, I'm meant to be a tycoon. Win: My team and I won a marketing case competition for Land O Lakes. It was a pretty cool experience - we collaborated, argued, built consensus, dominated. Loss: I had interviewed for an internship with Conagra in August, and I got rejected. I'm not disappointed though, so I assume that means I didn't really want it. Win: I have mentally denoted everyone's Tinder song in stats. Loss: Stats. WIN: The Tribe's in the playoffs!!!

This time of year always brings a whisper of nostalgia. My dad nicknamed me Novocain* in high school after my first big freshman tennis match. It was against our biggest rival, and I was playing a senior. She had pretty strokes, a solid serve, all the fixings of an easy match. But I had guts. The match lasted four hours, and much of that was tedious back and forth as I scrambled around like a rabid mongoose, willing my legs to reach one more ball. One point lasted a very uninteresting 96 shots. I didn't win because I was technically better - I rarely did. I won because I was mentally tougher. Because I wanted it more. Because I could dig deeper.

That's why sports are so special. They're black and white, and the scoreboard never lies. They're a battle, an exhausting grind, a constant test of mental strength. And they elevate you to a level you didn't know you could reach.*

On days like today, with the crisp air and the dying leaves, I miss that unwavering focus, that singular goal. I miss that grind.


* That's what she said.
* This was one of my better high school nicknames.
* That and the beautiful, muscular men.