Questions for the Alumni...

DH: I’d have taken a fifth year of school, as the first two years were of questionable value academically, and only after taking a year off from college, and returning did I find my love for academics. Consequently, I have always felt as if I really only had two years of college academics.

TD: It wasn't until years after college did I understand how nutrition is vital to success- on the field and off.

SE: I wish that I had engaged more with my professors and that I came home with a fat address book with my friend’s phone numbers. I thought that I cherished my playing days but after graduating, I had reoccurring dreams for more than a decade that I was on campus, and through some bizarre series of events, I was summoned to the field to use my last year of eligibility. I was always in Jeans, a flannel shirt, and work boots and ran in slow motion. The lesson is to take it in and give it your all and realize that playing competitive soccer is such a privilege and a blast and that it will end and maybe sooner than you planned and that it will get harder to replicate these experiences later in life.

DH: That forty years is a long time, and it is marathon, not a sprint. Pacing, and always following one’s passions provide better opportunities for long term success, and that maintaining one’s health and fitness is the best investment one can make for long term happiness. And on a more mundane topic, never give in to credit card offers and the belief that so long as I can make my minimum monthly payment, I’m fine and can accumulate credit card debt, as, after all, I’ll always make more money next year It is so easy to quickly run up $50,000 or more in credit card debt, which results in an effective ongoing interest surcharge on everything that one purchases, with the net effect being that every thing you charge has a 1018% markup due to the credit card interest.