Gopher Stuff
- On Saturday I officially enrolled at the University of Minnesota, joining the class of 2011. It was kind of weird, I went into the day in my typically undecided mindset, toured the campus a bit, and then just decided at one point to not delay the inevitable. To be perfectly honest, it was fairly anti-climactic, but now that it is done I'm relieved, to say the least.
This means that I should see two seasons of the new football stadium and hopefully a strong turnaround from the basketball squad under Mr. Smith. I hope that my decent collection of clips will land me a job as a freshman writer at the Minnesota Daily, although I'm not counting on it. Far more worthy writers than I have been turned away, to be sure.
The biggest relief in choosing a school is that I no longer have to give my "college decision spiel," which is usually more like a "college decision filibuster until the person loses any genuine interest, if they had any to begin with." Instead, just a few words. How nice.
One thing I was somewhat surprised about the U was the sense of campus and community once I actually toured it for a while. I'm used to the Mariucci/Williams Arena area where the school is mixed in with downtown, which made me a bit hesitant. My two biggest drawbacks for the U was it's size and it's proximity to my house (15-20 minutes).
I quickly got over the size when I realized that A) it was still a college campus with a college atmosphere and B) that it created so much more opportunity. First, and most importantly, what small college has a newspaper where the writers can travel with the teams and make almost $20,000 a year? Also there are things like the tennis club, which is a traveling club team. I would like to think that I'm accomplished enough to play intercollegiate tennis, but certainly not at the Division 1 level.
Plus, I'm going to be in "honors" housing, which apparently is a little less chaotic than the regular freshman dorms. I was a little apprehensive about a dorm infested with nerds, but after touring the building and meeting some of the people, it is more of just a place for people who go to college to expand rather than to drink.
- Speaking of the Maroon and Gold, it was a tough end to the season Sunday night, when they lost in overtime to North Dakota. I had a ton of fun covering them this season, and I had a trip to St. Louis for the Frozen Four in the works, but alas, its not to be. Oh yeah, there's another thing I'm looking forward to at the U, although I don't know how I'll cope with having to pay/scrounge for tickets and pay/scrounge for food and drink once inside.
As usual, they have a strong reserve of recruits in line to take some of the vacant spots next year (I won't bother you with the 'They don't rebuild, they reload line,' although I suppose I just did). Seniors Mike Vanelli and Kellen Briggs will both be leaving, as well as perhaps 2006 NHL draft #1 pick Erik Johnson and junior All-American Alex Goligoski. Two 2007 commitments played Minnesota high school hockey -- Patrick White for Grand Rapids and Brandon Martell from Elk River -- but they probably won't both make the squad, barring a shocking departure from someone like Kyle Okposo.
- I just got done watching the Twins win the '87 ALCS on FSN North. As always, this is a wonderful idea from the FSN brain trust, especially if you didn't happen to be alive when some of these things took place.
More Twins stuff tomorrow. There's nothing pressing enough to force the theme of this post away from me.
This means that I should see two seasons of the new football stadium and hopefully a strong turnaround from the basketball squad under Mr. Smith. I hope that my decent collection of clips will land me a job as a freshman writer at the Minnesota Daily, although I'm not counting on it. Far more worthy writers than I have been turned away, to be sure.
The biggest relief in choosing a school is that I no longer have to give my "college decision spiel," which is usually more like a "college decision filibuster until the person loses any genuine interest, if they had any to begin with." Instead, just a few words. How nice.
One thing I was somewhat surprised about the U was the sense of campus and community once I actually toured it for a while. I'm used to the Mariucci/Williams Arena area where the school is mixed in with downtown, which made me a bit hesitant. My two biggest drawbacks for the U was it's size and it's proximity to my house (15-20 minutes).
I quickly got over the size when I realized that A) it was still a college campus with a college atmosphere and B) that it created so much more opportunity. First, and most importantly, what small college has a newspaper where the writers can travel with the teams and make almost $20,000 a year? Also there are things like the tennis club, which is a traveling club team. I would like to think that I'm accomplished enough to play intercollegiate tennis, but certainly not at the Division 1 level.
Plus, I'm going to be in "honors" housing, which apparently is a little less chaotic than the regular freshman dorms. I was a little apprehensive about a dorm infested with nerds, but after touring the building and meeting some of the people, it is more of just a place for people who go to college to expand rather than to drink.
- Speaking of the Maroon and Gold, it was a tough end to the season Sunday night, when they lost in overtime to North Dakota. I had a ton of fun covering them this season, and I had a trip to St. Louis for the Frozen Four in the works, but alas, its not to be. Oh yeah, there's another thing I'm looking forward to at the U, although I don't know how I'll cope with having to pay/scrounge for tickets and pay/scrounge for food and drink once inside.
As usual, they have a strong reserve of recruits in line to take some of the vacant spots next year (I won't bother you with the 'They don't rebuild, they reload line,' although I suppose I just did). Seniors Mike Vanelli and Kellen Briggs will both be leaving, as well as perhaps 2006 NHL draft #1 pick Erik Johnson and junior All-American Alex Goligoski. Two 2007 commitments played Minnesota high school hockey -- Patrick White for Grand Rapids and Brandon Martell from Elk River -- but they probably won't both make the squad, barring a shocking departure from someone like Kyle Okposo.
- I just got done watching the Twins win the '87 ALCS on FSN North. As always, this is a wonderful idea from the FSN brain trust, especially if you didn't happen to be alive when some of these things took place.
More Twins stuff tomorrow. There's nothing pressing enough to force the theme of this post away from me.
Labels: Gopher Hockey, My Life
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 26, 2007 at 6:42 PM.
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As a U (and MN Daily) alum: welcome to the University!
I was going to make fun of you for living in honors housing, then I remembered that I lived in Pioneer Hall my freshman year, which makes me the idiot, not you.
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