Grad School

While I was in Israel, one of my grandmothers had passed away, leaving me a small inheritance. My parents said that I could either let them keep the money to pay for the extra year I spent in Madison, or I could use it to go to grad school. I chose grad school. After having done a few races, I had decided that what I really wanted to do was to put on races. I wanted to give other people the chance to set a goal, to work hard, and to get that amazing feeling of accomplishment crossing the finish line like I had.

The most reasonable, somewhat associated, graduate school program to do that was Sports administration. There were only a few schools in the country at that time that even offered a Master’s Degree in Sports Administration. One of them happened to be in North Miami. It was close enough to Pompano Beach, where my grandfather owned a condo and spent the winters, so I decided to look into it.

In the meantime, I was working at a running specialty store in Tampa, smoking like crazy and training. I was living with Paul, but never really saw him because he was working third-shift at Kinkos. Our apartment was a sight to behold. It was named the Urban Campground by his nephews. We didn’t have any furniture. No television. No beds. We had one bowl. One knife. One fork. That was enough to cook spaghetti when we got tired of peanut butter and jelly. We did have a therma-rest inflatable chair. And most importantly, we had a cd-player. This was subsistence living at its finest. It worked out well. At least well enough.

Finally it was time for me to move to the other coast of Florida for school. Even though my grades weren’t all that great from my undergraduate degree, there was a personal interview that was part of the process. I made the drive across the state and met with the Dean of the Sports Administration program at St. Thomas University.

I was different from the typical applicant that was trying to get in the program. Just about everyone else was there because they wanted to work for a professional team, or become a part of the athletic department at a college. I didn’t even watch sports. I just wanted to participate. My focus was on putting on events for recreational athletes. After hearing about the Ironman I had done a few months earlier, they were pretty impressed. I think I really freaked them out when in between interviews, I went to my car and put on my running clothes an ran around the campus for an hour. I was interesting enough for them to sort of overlook my grades and accept me into the program.

The next session of classes wasn’t going to start until May, so I had another few months to just hang out in Tampa. With this graduate school program, I at least had a plan for the next year or two. And the idea of living in south Florida while going to grad school wasn’t all that bad. I still dealt with depression, but as long as I kept smoking, I was o.k.