The older I get the more interesting different TV stations become. MTV has gone down and CNBC has gone up. I'm addicted to CNBC shows at night. If I am not watching sports, it's either CNBC, the History Channel or a Law and Order...preferably the ones with Jerry Orbach on TNT. (SVU and Criminal Intent are good...but I'm going old school)
I have to say that I'm fascinated by the Suze Orman show. I can't lie, because watching it makes me feel like I am learning something useful about money and how to save it...and make sure I have a retirement one day...and not in debt...
The older you get the more you realize all of the things that you have to pay for, and also how easy it is to not stay on top of things until you are in debt up to your eyeballs.
What this show also should do is make college student-athletes on scholarship appreciate the value of a FREE education. When they graduate, if they have a full scholarship, they are debt free and they hold a degree. If they realized how valuable that is they would never complain about the need of getting paid to play.
I'm also glad with some of the decisions that I have made and also thankful that my grandmother's family lost their house (pretty sure she did) during the Great Depression because my grandma taught me the importance of not wasting money and this certainly played into my decision into which college I would attend.
Unlike what my guidance counselor said, I only applied to three schools because I knew I'd only go to one of those three.
I visited two others that I didn't apply to, St. Bonaventure, which was the first school I looked at...and my parents loved for some reason. (although they always liked UCONN the best, especially my father because of it's price) In the end I couldn't picture myself liking the cold, and only being able to bike in September...and a little in October and April. I also looked at the University of Virginia, another school I had no shot getting into. I actually didn't like the University either. I got there and knew it wasn't for me.
The three I applied too were the University of North Carolina, The University of Miami (The "U" in Florida) and The University of Connecticut. North Carolina was my "reach school". As an out of stater I had no business being accepted their but knew I wouldn't get in if I didn't apply. I happened to have loved the area of North Carolina and had an Aunt who lived nearby, plus I had an affinity for Michael Jordan and the UNC Basketball program. I loved the campus and thought it was beautiful.
I had gone to "The U" (Miami) to get credit for summer college courses while still in High School. It was a great program and I thoroughly enjoyed the school and the area of Coral Gables (not the area past the KFC and the bad part of town) While I was there taking classes for those three weeks I LOVED..I mean LOVED waking up at 7:30 for breakfast and walking to the dining hall going past a couple of lake/ponds in 70 degree weather and sunlight. (and also was the only person who enjoyed going outside to play basketball in 100 degree heat and humidity) I loved the Sports Management classes I took, and loved their football program. Certainly it helped that NFL player Antrel Rolle and future player Greg Olsen stopped by our class one day. So did James Bryant, who is most famous at Miami for helping incite a riot against FIU.
The U had my major and the weather I liked best, plus a great football program that I really wanted to watch and support. I thought for sure they would compete for a National Championship one year...(As it turned out UCONN was more successful in football than Miami during my years in college). The negatives included being so far from home, not having a place to bike around campus and most importantly the cost.
I was so close to applying early decision to Miami (meaning I apply, they accept me and than I have to enroll). I remember being in the car and having my parents say "Well if you are sure you would go if accepted than just apply early decision". I was SO close to saying yes. As a matter of fact I probably said "yeah I'll probably do that" but then decided like all great men, let's not commit to anything yet. The price of Miami just bothered me and my parents were willing to help pay for grad school if I chose not to go to Miami. I was in quite the pickle.
I liked UCONN on my visit. I don't remember being WOWed but I remember at the time knowing that I could go to school there with no problems. I actually was really comfortable on my visit with it being so far in the woods. 195 reminded me a lot of my summer vacations in New Hampshire and some of the roads we had to drive on like Route 9 and Route 25. I knew I could get in to Storrs without a problem. I also liked it was close to home so I could visit family when needed and not have to worry about flying home on breaks. If I got sick I could drive an hour and forty-five minutes home, like I did that one time I was sent home in December of my senior year with a possible case of...let's not make anyone feel bad...
I also really liked the cost, and the basketball teams.
One of my biggest reasons for eventually picking UCONN over Miami, and it took a couple of months for my mind to be made up, (I think I made it up watching a UCONN Basketball game) was the fact that everything at Miami would cost two and half times more (not including travel expenses) than what UConn did and I didn't think that each class at Miami was worth two and a half what a UCONN class was. I just had a hard time having my parents and I spend an extra $80-100,000 on college...and the thought of being able to get some help from my parents for grad school on top of undergrad on UCONN was too good of a deal to pass up.
Money played a part in my decision to attend UCONN and I'm happy as heck it did, because that saved money will benefit my entire family and myself for my whole life. I'm happy as heck because I never would have witnessed Miami do anything great in sports had I gone there, as a matter of fact UCONN Football has been much better than Miami in recent years, plus UCONN has won National Championships in Men's and Women's Basketball...and won 90 straight games.
The decision to attend UCONN was the best decision I ever made, as we were a match made in heaven. I wouldn't be writing right now if it wasn't for UCONN, and all of this can be tied up in the value of saving and not wasting money that my grandmother learned from living through the Great Depression.
(I never really thought I'd go on this long...but while here I'll mention a couple things about my grandmothers.)
One other remarkable thing I find when I think to myself about my grandmothers is how different they were and how it's made me bipolar (not literally).
My dad's mom lived through the Great Depression like my Mom's mom (who lost the house) did. Dad's mom was born in the Taft Administration (1909), my Mom's in the Harding Administration (1923). My dad's mom was a very caring and loving person when I knew her as a grandmother (she passed away in 1998 and I miss her). She was the very loving and would never say a bad thing about anyone. She was so nice and believed that if you don't have anything nice to say that you don't say anything at all. I credit her with me being nice.
My mom's mom is a tough person. Tough love is the love I associate with her and I love that sort of love, I'm used to that. If she thought I was heavy growing up she'd tell me I had bricks in my pants. She can be stubborn and she MOST DEFINITELY tells you what is on her mind. She does not hold back and will not put up with crap. She probably wouldn't talk to her own child if she didn't approve of how they were living their life.
She's also smart with money (She has had the same Volkswagen Golf for almost all of my life and she had it ordered special back around 1990 without any air conditioning, with a manual transmission and no power windows...they didn't make any like that, so Volkswagen had to find one like it somewhere...somehow she got what she wanted even though they didn't exactly or usually produce one like it), an amazing cook (makes the best milkshakes among other things), amazing gardener, an amazing worker (At 87 she shovels her own driveway, mows her own lawn and helps out at the church) and also loving, but sometimes in a tough way, or atleast in a tougher way than my other grandma. She also took care of me when she lived in Greenwich, right near where we lived in Stamford, while my sister was being born. One of my earliest childhood memories involved spending time with her at her house and being playfully bit by her dog Rocky. I'm pretty close to her and I make a point of calling her every couple of weeks.
They are two different people personality wise and both of them have had a great affect on me.
I didn't really expect to write so much about my family and college choice and assume most people have no interest in reading about it, but at the same time, it's good to have these stories written down so that way a family historian can have some more material one day...I don't always have to talk sports, I can talk about myself sometimes.
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