Whitney's Blog

I have officially decided that after surgeons I think college students consume the most amounts of coffee/caffeine. Because of my major I try hard to live a healthy lifestyle so I refrain from most sodas and definitely all energy drinks. However, there comes a time in every college students life when all the school work piles up and you have to have something to help you survive. My weakness: coffee. I've pretty much decided all the professors get together before the semester starts and they decide on an official test week. This week becomes the week all classes decide to schedule their tests on. Therefore, the student has an awesome 3 weeks of nothing and one week of complete torture. My week for this is this week. 4 total tests; one Monday, one Tuesday, one Wednesday, and one Thursday. I guess I can be very thankful that it's only one per day.

For this reason exactly is why I think college students consume one of the highest quantities of coffee or caffeine. Luckily, college comes at the perfect time in our lives where our bodies can sustain the strain we put on it, including staying up late and having a diet of fast food and soda. I went one final's week my sophomore year with no caffeine and it was one of the toughest things I've ever done. I would not recommend it to others.

So that's what my life will consist of for the next week. Spending way too much time in the library studying for these awesome tests and bombarding myself with way too much caffeine.

When you are heading off to college everyone seems to have some sort of advice for you, whether it be about roommates, laundry, or classes. The one thing that always stays consistent with anyone you talk to is the importance of the friendships you will build in college. How many times have you heard a parent or aunt talk about their old college roommate or their sorority sisters. Being from Knoxville I could have optioned to live at home but instead my parents forced me out of the house into dorm life and told me that the friends I would make during the next 4 years will be some of the best friends I will have. As an incoming freshman that all sounds pretty cool, but I was not all too convinced with that statement because I'm pretty sure that's what they also said about high school.

When I started school I also became a manager for the women's basketball team. I met my 7 new co-workers who I worked with but also secretly competed against. They make the environment so cutthroat and competitive. Everyone wants to put in the time and the hard work to get the best games, best trips, etc. In my sport psych class we learned about the 4 stages of a group; forming, storming, norming, and performing. As he explained the concepts of each stage I could relate our group to every aspect. We formed obviously because we were all chosen to be managers so we were put together and forced to become a "team." This group of people was made up of 7 people that were so different. We were all from different parts of the country, 2 from Knoxville, one from southern Alabama, one from Wisconsin, and one from Northern Virginia. Probably the one thing we had in common was that we all loved basketball. After forming, comes storming and we definitely had our storms. During our first year together we were constantly trying to compete against each other and outdo the other one. It was like an episode of Survivor or some other reality show. No one was sincere, there were alliances, and everyone had there turn when the rest of the group was mad at them for something. But the amazing thing was about a year later we ended up growing up and getting over this. We entered the norming stage and I would argue the performing stage. We realized that we were a "team" within a team and we were the only ones that would have each others backs.

By our second year, we had spent enough time around each other to know pretty much everything about each other. You really get to know a person when you spend at least 5 hours a day with them not including the many days you are stuck in a hotel room or on a bus with them. They say familiarity breeds contempt but we were the exception. Instead of getting mad because someone was power tripping, we began to realize that was just part of who they were and letting it roll off your back instead of taking it personally. Our third year was by far our best year. I still have never seen any team, work group, or anything that was as loyal to one another as we were to each other. Our work relationships had turned into real friendships and the only thing we wanted for ourselves was for our "team" to succeed.

This past May, 2 of our managers graduated and one took an internship with her church so she had to leave us. It's not until now that I realize how much I miss them. We had been lucky for the last two years to be a part of such an amazing group of people, and things were just easier when it was 7 people working as one unit, a "well oiled machine!" Our new managers are great and I have really enjoyed getting to know them but it will never be the same. So if not from anyone else, I will be the one to tell you, put time into the relationships you make in college because they really do become some of your best friends you're bound to have in life. We have built so many memories together; 2 National Championships, painting the rock, late nights in the film room, and somehow making every aspect of our job fun! These guys are the people I want at my wedding, the first ones I will call when I finally graduate with my doctorate, and the first ones to be there for me for anything in my life. They truly have become my second family, and I love them!

One of my favorite events that the city of Knoxville puts on every October is the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to benefit breast cancer research. This event combines being physically active, which I am a huge advocate of, and promoting and educating people about breast cancer. There are a few times when the city seems to pull together and feel like one, big, tight knit community; for UT football games, sundown in the city, and the Race for the Cure. This past Saturday was the 13^th annual race. Every year when I step foot on the World's Fair grounds I get "goose bumps" from how many people come out to support this cause. This year I think there was over 15,000 people, with the event raising over $250,000 in entry fees alone. I am pretty biased towards this event though. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 2 years old, so for me I grew up around this disease. Every time I run this 5k it makes me think of all the women who are diagnosed with this disease every day and put up such a fight for their lives! Your life, wow! Being involved in things like this help to put life in perspective and I know that sounds really cliche but it is true! When I have to stay up until 2 am in our cushy library studying for my physics test the next day at 8am I feel like nothing could be worse. This makes me think of all the women stuck in hospitals who wish learning physics was the most they had to worry about. It reminds me how blessed I am to be able to wake up and get myself out of bed every day!

Fall Break, one of the most coveted four-day weekends of the fall semester. All last week every conversation throughout campus I'm pretty sure sounded something like this:

Person 1: O my gosh I can't wait until fall break!

Person 2: Me neither! I need a break! What are you doing?

Person 1: I am (insert really fun activity here.)

Unfortunately for me my answer wasn't so exciting.;

Person 1: Hey Whitney what are you doing for fall break?

Whitney: First official day of practice!

Yes, while the rest of the student body ventured off to various parts of the state/country/world, I was left here in Knoxville to embark on another basketball season. I guess I should first fill you in, I am a manager for the women's basketball team here at UT and somehow the NCAA or whoever mandated the schedule decided that Tennessee's fall break would be the perfect time to start practice. Now I am making this sound really terrible and it is definitely not. It gave me the chance to stay in town and catch up on many things that needed much catching up on (homework, laundry, cleaning, etc). We also hosted a coach's clinic this weekend, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The long nights and 18 hour days were actually pretty nice to be able to get to know the new managers we hired this year and meet the men's teams managers. Overall, to be honest, I really enjoyed staying around campus for fall break. I met some new friends, had the TREC basically to myself, and had no problem finding a parking spot anywhere on campus which I would say sounds like a pretty successful weekend!