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Roman's World - Insight from Utah Tennis
12/22/2009 12:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Dec. 22, 2009
Welcome to Roman's World. Periodically, this space will be used to post excerpts from the personal blog of Roman Margoulis, a freshman men's tennis player at the U. Roman came to Utah from Luxembourg this past summer and shares some interesting opinions and insights on American culture, college life and Utah Tennis.
It's been a while since I posted my last article, and I have respectable reasons for doing so. The last two weeks were fully dedicated to school and getting some sleep here and there, because there has been a lot to do. Now I don't want to compare myself to our teammates who major in engineering, but I guess I never had to study that much in my whole life.
Since I'm leaving for Luxembourg, this will be my final post from Salt Lake City for this year. I might write some short ones from home.
Looking back on those almost 4 months, I can say that I have a lot of memories. Without a doubt this was the hardest I've worked in a given period of time, especially because there was this continuation. Sometimes I really didn't feel like going out there and giving my best, most times I beat this feeling, sometimes I didn't... There were moments when I thought why the hell I was doing this to myself, and other times when I thought that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I think that when it's all done, you forget the pain and bad moods you went through and remember only the good moments you had on the court, in the gym, on the track (a little less good memories there), in school, etc. This was indeed a big challenge, and way bigger than I expected it to be, but it made me a lot stronger, especially mentally. And I think that all of us teammates can take a lot of pride from what we went through, because I can tell for sure that not a lot of young people out there would get out of their comfort zones and bust their butts like we did, and this goes for CJ too, who even though quit the team some weeks ago, already has done it for almost three years, and will go on to do it at an other college. I think you guys all deserve respect for this, and I want to thank you for having gone through those months with me, and made them as special as they turned out to be. Of course there is still a second semester to go, with matches coming up where it will really matter, but this is the next chapter, so let's worry about it next semester. I would also like to thank the coaches for their patience with us. We haven't been easy to deal with sometimes, and from our point of view, neither have you;) but you have done an incredible job and thanks for that.
A couple weeks ago was the last week of practice, and we were on our own to do what we felt we needed to do. Most guys decided played matches, but I just practiced randomly what I wanted to. We still had some easy runs, but they were rather like spending some time together and having a few laughs.
It was a bit more serious in the gym. On each of our three sessions we had to do our maximum in one given exercise a day, and even though it was the first time here that we lifted somehow competitively, we managed to have fun. I guess that a lot of the guys did big improvements and saw themselves lift heavy weights. The bad news is that our future lifts will be based on these maximum weights we set, so for some of us it will get tougher.
The last practice of this fall semester was an especially good day, nobody held back the overwhelming feelings of happiness. However, I'm sure that deep inside we all are sad that that this great semester came to an end.
As a reward for our great work ethic and the patience we had with them, the coaches invited us to a nice Brazilian restaurant with an all you can eat formula. It was very good, but I still haven't recovered from all the meat I ate, so I'm not really into steaks now. But altogether, it was a very nice week with everyone being happy that holidays are coming closer, including the coaches, so the atmosphere was rather relaxed.
I would also like to mention that I found a new pastime, which consists in playing rather stupid jokes on my roommate. Whereas most people who I see everyday already know those stories, I want to share the ones which made me laugh the most.
I got pumpkin ice cream in the dining room, and it was as disgusting as it sounds. So when my roommate went to take a shower, I decided to throw it on his head. He got really angry, to an extent I couldn't have imagined his soft nature to go, jumped out of the shower, grabbed my shaving cream and started aiming at me. There are still some rests of the shaving cream on the ceiling, which I don't know how he managed to do. He then ran with only a towel through the dorms trying to find me. Ultimately, when he realized I was too fast for him, he decided to take my matress and throw it out of the room, with some shaving cream on it... I had an incredible laugh!
A few days later, I bought cheese in a pressure tube, which works like deodorant, just not that aggressive. So one evening I was bored, and decided to put some of this cheese on different easy to clean property of his. He wanted to put it on my head, but it landed on my new pullover, so I smeared it on his underwear, and wherever I could put it. The fun part was that he just got out of the shower, but had to get there again. Obviously he was angry. And lets not mention that his D&G underwear was full of cheese...
Let's also mention that it got a little colder. Basically, it's getting colder from day to day, and right now we are at -16°C, which is really cold! I think I will have to move to the north pole to enjoy even colder temperatures. The good side about it is that my roommate and I finally agreed on the temperature in the room. By now it's way too cold to open the windows, so I put on the heat myself.
As I said in the beginning, the last days were all about school. Finals (last tests) have a big impact on the final grade we get, so there is some pressure to do well. So I managed to discipline myself and study maths and economics everyday over the last 10 days. It wasn't as bad as it was in high school, maybe because in college we realize that we work for our future, and good grades are in our best interest. Today I had two of my finals in one day, so right now I feel really tired, I didn't get enough sleep for one week probably, and I'm not even sure about the outcome of my math exam. But it's over, so let's forget about it...
Now to everyone who is reading this and is not on the tennis team, but goes to the U or lives any close to Salt Lake: You are very welcome to come cheer for us next semester. We will have a lot of home matches, where we need any support we can get, and trust me, you won't regret it. Tennis is a fun sport to watch, and even though we are in the USA, where football is the No. 1 sport, on a global level tennis is way more popular, more people play it and there are supporters all over the world. And if you don't like one match, there will be 6 matches going on at the same time, so you will be served. And come on, we are a bunch of good-looking +/- 20 year-olds!
That's almost everything I wanted to say. With all sentimentalism, I can't say that I will treasure the memories about the food, so I can't wait to eat real (not genetically modified) fresh fruit and vegetables, and my mom's homemade dishes. I'm also looking forward to seeing my old friends, and have a nice relaxing time at home. I've never been away for so long, so I guess it will be special to see everyone again.
Have a nice break!
Roman
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