Full Circle

I never finished, because I never felt like I was done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EGae-Fjwwg

-One Life

Late in the 4th: Part I

It's been months since I blogged last and I don't really know why to be honest. If you asked me what I've done for the last 2 months I would respond with, "I lived it." I haven't done anything special besides my job, meeting new people, learning as much as I can, and enjoying my stay here. After a while, this is the same as home. I have good friends, great opportunities to change people's lives, fantastic living conditions, and I'm in a great place mentally. I'm starting to miss friendships that I have stateside but I'm really embracing the new ones I've made over the last 5 months. I really do love this place and these people, I find it saddening that our relationship with a country like this has not been the best, from an American standpoint. Everyday I have more and more people refusing to speak to me in English because they assume I'm Serbian, and I get less he's-definitely-not-from-here stares. 

My language has changed quite a bit as a whole, my English is slipping, I can't remember Spanish to save my life, and I find that I would rather speak Serbian with my teammates than English. Some of my enunciation's are in a more Southern Serbian tongue and some are more Northern sounding, and like any foreigner I have words that scream, "Dude, I'm trying my best." It's a funny comparison from past to present, when Randy and I first arrived here in Nis we would sometimes respond to people who spoke Serbian (gibberish to our ears) with "Sí". A flawless example of how humans are creatures of habit and our extremely comprehensive thought process: I didn't understand anything this person just yelled at me, ummm ummmmm say something.... anything..... "¡Sí!"

The longer I'm here, the harder understanding a standard desk job in the real world becomes. I was watching Office Space not too long ago and had an epiphany, similar to Peter's. No matter what, you're asked to produce like everyone else, display no special skills, conform to the rules and regulations, and you're accoladed for consistently achieving the status quo. In my life, I'm a teacher, a role model, a teammate, a brother, I'm awarded for discovering and overcoming, and most importantly I have the opportunity to shine. 


I laugh every time I think about it. What is a job? A job is ANYTHING that people will pay you to do. The older I get the more hilarious I find the thought; after college, graduates are petrified to not find a job that they don't want in the first place. I've been told quite a bit by older people who really love what they do that if you wake up every day and say, "They pay me to do this?", that means you're in the right job. I run around with plastic protection all over my body, throwing myself into other men as hard as I possibly can for an hour. I do that 8 times throughout a 5 month period along with practice with my best friends, I make appearances at pool openings and on TV, I go to meetings with my friends, etc, and outside of that I have all that time in-between to do anything I want. 


It's easy for people to sit and watch these young athletes struggle with the spotlight on them when they don't even have a fragment of an idea of what it's like for these young people to get millions of dollars thrown in their face for playing a game that they've played since they were a child. I'm not making millions by any means but the more experience I get with this lifestyle, the closer I get to seeing what they're going through.

"You're one of the best in the world at holding this leather thing, running with it, and not falling down when people try to push you on the ground. So, here's 10 million dollars, you're 22 years old, we have no idea what your life has been like up to this point, you're going to be surrounded with people that you've never known before in places that you've never been. We expect you to make only great decisions. Good luck, try not to mess it up."

Yea, we all know the famous Spiderman quote, "With great power, comes great responsibility". What if the person has no idea what responsibility is? This person is so great at doing things that involve that piece of air filled leather, that no one wants to guide them or punish them in order to educate them on life lessons. Instead, since they are so well respected on the field or court that it transitions to life off the field. His parents stop disciplining him, because he's doing "so well", his teachers laugh when they catch him cheating on a test, but don't fail him, his friends tell him he's invincible and he's going to make it big, yet they want him to skip training tomorrow morning and come out with them tonight for the best party of the year. With such high expectations for that person to do everything perfectly and be successful, why wouldn't they consider life as a normal person that nobody has an opinion about?

Being a product of your surroundings is inevitable. If you hangout with people who don't want to push you than it will be difficult to support your "limitless potential lifestyle" by self-motivation. When I was training with my team in college all I wanted to hear was that my coach didn't hate me. As bad as that sounds, if a person is always criticizing you to improve and is never satisfied with the results when a best effort is given, in-turn the criticized has a feeling of insignificance. There is a fine line between making someone feel uncomfortable with their accomplishments to this point and making that same person think that they can never attain their goals. The best motivators in the world tiptoe along this thin line.


Right now our team is sitting at 7-0, we travel to Indjija tomorrow to play for the conference championship, a perfect season, the Super-league and opportunity to play for the Euro Cup next season awaits. If I execute my job with perfection and exceed the expectations that people have for me, we go undefeated and I can finally earn that feeling of accomplishment and closure. If we lose, we go 7-1, don't go to the Super-League next season, don't get to play for the Euro Cup and I get the empty feeling that I didn't do enough. I didn't go hard enough, I didn't live how I wanted, I let my teammates down, and I return home a loser wondering what the feeling of success would've been like.


Here's to the pursuit of perfection while knowing that I'm doing it for the man next to me and the other 9 men sharing the field with us. Here's to the struggles. Here's to the triumphs. Here's to life.


-One Life

Game Planning

Adjusting to the Serbian lifestyle has been quite the battle when attempting to live life as a professional athlete in a foreign country. Especially when I don't know the language, the resources available, or the type of people I'm going to surround myself with. But, my experiences thus far in my young life have taught me the type of person that I want to be and I'm thankful for that. The facilities are lacking, the diets are absurd, and the Serbian way of life is great, but not exactly "healthy". Everything in the world has positives and negatives, it just takes time to learn how to sort them out.

In Junior High I ate triple decker PB&J's and 3 cartons of milk for lunch, during high school the "daily meals" were the furthest thing from nutritious I have ever seen, in my Freshman year of college one of my best friends thought that a Raamen-only diet was a great idea. Ironically, he was the first Serbian I had ever been friends with. Needless to say, American society and myself personally have come a long way over the past few years.

The food here is all organic, no preservatives, with a large focus on meat throughout the meal. Peppers, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread can be expected as appetizers with meat being mixed in through a variety of dishes. The average Serbian meal will begin with a shot of Rakija (a traditional Serbian brandy that can be made with a variation of fruits and contains 40-60% alcohol), to "increase the appetite" as coach always says. I think it's just science in it's most simple form, drunk people love to eat. Period. As the entrees come, there are all types of meat like: chicken wrapped in bacon, sausage links, hamburgers, roasts, traditional mixed meat dishes, etc. Usually by the end of this dinner process 2-3 hours have passed and everyone at the table is ready for bed after enduring a lengthy, although beautiful, night of Rakija, mixed veggies and cheeses, piles of meat, and of course the most important component, great conversation between friends.

Serbians love to take their time when dining and enjoy every aspect of the process to the fullest. Even in conversation with the server about what they offer and the type of services available. They treat the server like an actual person, not just a brainless teenager who regurgitates food order numbers to a cook in the back like we tend to see in the states. Serbian servers never write anything down on paper, in comparison to our American waiters or waitresses who still manage to mess up a good portion of the time with their "trusty" pen and paper. I imagine their job skills build overtime just like a person who "works out" their brain to increase memory capacity and eventually after repetition after repetition with the menu, they are a seasoned veteran server with no need for pads of paper. 

I have noticed in my short time here that little sleep, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are a huge part of Serbian society. Good looking women usually smoke, obesity is not an issue, the dance floor is for standing on, not dancing on, and the combination of house music and "folk music" is like being at a rave and the worst country bar ever at the same time. Thankfully, they wait until late in the night to play Serbian folk music when everyone in the club thinks that every song is "their song".

Girls sing lyrics to songs in English, Serbian, and even Spanish. You can spot a cute one through the crowd to try and talk to and after they hear "hello" instead of "cao", most of the time they just start speaking in lyrics from LMFAO. Yea, LMFAO is still popular here so I have to endure a year of brainless beats and lines like "I'm sexy and I know it", "Everyday I'm shufflin'", "Wiggle, wiggle..." I refuse to finish the last one... "Yea!"

It's not that they don't know English; Serbian's start speaking and learning it as early as 3rd grade if not sooner. But when it comes to responding to Americans, many of them feel embarrassed to use their broken English in a nightlife setting when talking with a native English speaker. By the end of high school the average student here has been taught Serbian, English, Latin, and a 4th language of their choice. They take 10-15 courses a semester and have tests that would make the average American look like they've never attended a day of school in their life. Try a Serbian oral exam where the student has no idea what day the teacher will call on them to present a 30 minute lesson to the class reviewing a specific topic. We struggle with 5 minutes of pre-written presentations, notecards, and a given date ahead of time.

There are older buildings from the 60's when Serbia was an extremely poor country torn by a war stricken Eastern Europe. You can tell which ones these are just by the simplicity of the design; cement and metal. Now, when the country has had time to grow and prosper, new cars and buildings can be found throughout the city. Cafe's and malls mark the turn of the new times and one of my favorite places to represent the history of the city is the "Niš Fortress" which used to house the entire city of Niš at one time, now the interior of the fortress is a beautiful park with 4-5 cafes and an outdoor theater.

"The extant fortification is of Turkish origin, dating from the first decades of the 18th century (1719–1723). It is well-known as one of the most significant and best preserved monuments of this kind in the mid-Balkans. The Fortress was erected on the site of earlier fortifications - the Ancient Roman, Byzantine, and later yet Mediaeval forts." -Wiki

The river that runs through the city is called Nišava and has sidewalks on both sides for people to run along or enjoy a peaceful walk.

A photo I took from the fortress of an area along Nišava where my friend Julija says,

 "Emo kids go to hangout or you can find 'rockers' playing guitar. It's pretty nice."

With scenery like this obviously people are going to feel obliged to show public displays of affection. But really, that has been one of the biggest social changes for me personally. People make out EVERYWHERE, and nobody cares. Not only a Serbian thing, but a European thing. "Love is in the air", or in European water. I'm going to research that.

Cafe's in Niš are a popular social setting for people just looking for something to do, especially on Saturdays from 1-5. This involves finding a seat indoors or out on the sidewalk, a small table and cushioned chairs are pretty standard. Most people smoke cigarettes and order coffee. I tried my first cup of coffee here and it's as bad as it smells, I plan on never trying a cigarette in my lifetime either, so I go the little kid route with a hot chocolate and whipped cream.

Men ride mopeds together, they kiss each other on the cheek, wear skinny jeans, and yet, there are a very low number of homosexual men in Serbia. Women don't go in public unless they have makeup on, and wearing pajamas to class or even sweats in public doesn't happen unless they're an athlete. Skinny jeans and hightop shoes are extremely popular and instead of 1 out of 20 women that are good looking, it's more like 1 in 5 are good looking here. Also, like I said before obesity is not ramped like it is in the US, so that's a bonus. 

Gypsies. Oh, Gypsies. They have an interesting counterculture way of living life by pulling their young ones out of school around 4th grade after they've learned to read and write. After they've learned the "essentials" they see no need to pollute their brains by continuing their education. The occupations for the standard Gypsy involves: begging, washing windshields, singing, making you laugh and the only actual job I've witnessed them doing is working for the local garbage company. In such a city like Niš where there is a steady metropolitan feel throughout the city, every once in a while you'll see 3 Gypsies riding down the street, being honked at, in a horse drawn carriage with part of a hose, chicken wire, a flat tire, and a broken shelf. I presume that they just go to places where they can search through trash to find "useful" items and take them back to the "Gypsy camp". They speak in Serbian and "Gypsy language" and seem to be happy in the way that they go about life everyday. 

We have seen one other black person besides Randy here in Niš and I'm surprised we did. Because most people that we meet here tell us that Randy is the first black person they've ever seen. I'm not talking about kids either, these are 20-somethings that have lived in Eastern Europe their whole lives, traveled to surrounding countries, and still have only seen black people on television. So different from what we're exposed to in the states. We've gone to public places and had people follow us for a block just to study us. Even had a middle aged woman ask us if Randy's dreads are how his hair actually grows out of his head. We laughed pretty hard at that one. "Yea, he's half predator. Those are tentacles, we're here for your skull."

A little over a month in and I'm trying to pick up the language, eat anything that they set in front of me, and hang with these professional partiers that have been training since they were 16. The age is 18 but we have yet to see anyone get carded so most people start raging pretty young. There are positives and negatives to this, yes they start earlier than what most people in the US would consider "ok" but on the other hand you rarely see people completely blacked out, puking, and sloppy. As we learn in the states, if you're not a college student or an alcoholic, you've been there, done that, and know what you can handle.

On a Friday or Saturday you can expect to make it home around 6 and the bars start to get really crowded about midnight. We got the opportunity to enjoy the "Naissus House Fest" a couple weeks back. We didn't know what to expect going into it, but once we woke up the next morning we were talking about how we'd do it a 100 more times.

Crowd shot from Naissus House Fest in Niš.

When we first came here, one of the more popular questions Serbians had for us was, "What did you think Serbia was like before you came? Dirt roads, poverty, guns, and crazy people?" When we nodded, they would laugh hysterically at how ignorant our American view was. I'm just happy to be in such a place where I can live and learn from people that are kind like the midwest, party like the coasts, and are educated beyond their borders. 

In the coming month we have the opportunity of attending Metallica for free, thanks to Coach Simovich. Not a rock guy by any means, but I'm not missing the opportunity to see such a historic band in a venue that I'll never visit again at a time that I'll never... you know the drill.

-One Life

X's & O's

Salé, Randy, Conor, and I having a great night in Niš.

Change. It can be for the better, or what seems for the better at the time, and later it might not turn out the way a person had anticipated as "improved". As in anything, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and sometimes, it can be difficult to see. During a time of struggle it may seem like a bad decision lead to these crossroads, but "change" takes over the situation through the process of time and may have earned a positive end result that wasn't very clear from the beginning.

Sometimes people think that change is necessary, why? Because it helps us to grow, build on what we understand now and help to process what's before us. In my opinion, the more change a person undergoes the more they can comprehend and apply to not only themselves but their surroundings, and in-turn help improve their pursuit of happiness. An often used saying is, "Get out of your comfort zone". The reason for that is, to learn how to adapt, accept, and appreciate these new situations for the future.

A person that has never been forced to find shelter in the wilderness, would consider it "the worst night of their life". A person, who has never been poor, would not enjoy wearing clothes and shoes that don't fit properly, even when they should be happy to have any clothing at all. An athlete that has never lost, doesn't know how to loathe losing and value winning. A couple that has been together for 6 months decides to break up, they get back together a week later because they don't know anything else. So again, they retreat to the "comfort zone", and in-turn prove that they have a weak understanding of change and how it works. Unless, they had been there before, performed these tasks, and learned to understand and appreciate the reason for what and why they're doing it.

The same goes for people adjusting to new surroundings. If you never leave a place, of course you're not going to have any understanding or appreciation for anything that is different. Just like I said above, I feel that the more a person experiences, the more they can shape what they are attracted to whether it be a surrounding, people, food, weather, language, anything. It's a huge struggle with the human mind on how we want to take our approach to life. There are those that think the more we see and are exposed to, the more educated and worldly we are. Then, there is the opposite where they appreciate the small world that they live in and don't want to be exposed to anything else, for it would tarnish their already "perfect" view on how they enjoy the things around them and have found a "true love" within the little amount that they know and understand.

Today, in a world where people from all over the globe can come and go as they please, there are all kinds of variations of cultures, people, and surroundings where a person is exposed to a lot overtime; that person takes in every little detail and experience that adds up to an extremely encompassing view of the world. In the age that we are living now, the world grows smaller and smaller everyday, more and more people have the opportunities to discover and that's a beautiful thing. In a huge place like New York the start of something new is happening whereas in comparison to small town Nebraska for example; they never leave, find the person that they think is the most beautiful man or woman they've ever seen (probably is, since they have such a small sample size) and are content because they have no other knowledge. In relation to "traditional" American life, the population is told to live in a structured world where a married couple is supposed to "settle down", have children that live in the same place, they go to the same job everyday, with the same people, retire, and then are told to explore during retirement?

I feel that's a backwards practice in relation to where today's age is headed. You see movies where the kids are being pulled from their schools because their parents got a new job and the parents feel horrible because the children have never experienced this idea of change. If your children were constantly learning, applying, and understanding new things then there would be no remorse when they leave their friends. They would be happy to have shared the time they did with those people and begin looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.

Bare with me for a paragraph. Just because thousands of years ago humans shaped the world around having to settle in a place for lack of travel and communication alternatives doesn't mean that the world can't slowly adjust to this new way of life. I know this idea is drastically ahead of it's time, but just be open to the thought of networking with people all around the world with today's technology and ability to travel. Video feed, airplanes, cell phones, and social networking sites have replaced postal services, ground transportation, and the term "distance" is a word of the past. The new world is smashing into the old and running it into the ground with a force that no one could have ever imagined. Why not have great times and friends in Japan, Alaska, Kentucky, Turkey, France, and Australia?

An elementary view that may give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about is, The Wild Thornberry's. Eliza is the main character, she travels the world with her family, meets so many types of animals and people that all have different lives, traditions, beliefs, and surroundings. The family is specifically designed to show diversity and express a worldly appreciation of people and beliefs. Anyone watching is exposed to the idea of accepting differences and experiences in a way that helps to shape Eliza into the beautiful person that she is and the understanding that she has about the world. No matter what scenario is placed in front of her, Eliza knows how to adapt because she has done it her entire life.

Of course, not everyone's father is a traveling nature show host that lives in an awesome "magic school bus" type of RV. But a more realistic style applies to our lives today, study abroad programs in colleges, the growing number of people that fly, and modern networking is edging the human race closer and closer to this new way of life. We are a generation that is torn up in the middle of this noteworthy change in history and a lot of us have yet to realize it.

I would go as far as comparing it to old Western movies where a "new cowboy" struts into town and the first thing out of the townies mouths are "He ain't from these parts." In 200 years, if we haven't blown up the world yet, nobody will know where anyone else is from just by looking at them. More people are learning the languages of other continents, racial barriers are being knocked down, and moves are being made to distribute wealth more evenly among the population. A birthplace will simply be known as a starting point in a beautiful journey that covers a wide array of people, beliefs, places, and experiences.

We're not there yet because time and change go hand in hand, but every day we move a step closer. Today, a lot of people can't afford to travel and share experiences in the way that I speak of them. Many still choose to live a small life and are happy for it. But, like many things in the world, it's a percentage game and slowly but surely I believe we're moving in the right direction when it comes to this aspect of life. I've been blessed to have been born in the United States, be a person of multiple races, and was raised in a way to have an open mind about the world. The picture at the top represents more than just great friends but a Serbian, an African American/Cuban, an Irishman, and an Asian/Caucasian that happened to be united through the game of football and the English language.


I can't wait for the opportunity to show my children and family this view of "the big picture". But even more important, I hope that the world begins to embrace it.

-One Life

"Let me see."

Randy and I are waiting for our 3rd roommate to arrive in a couple days, a quarterback named Conor Price from Georgia. He asked both of us how we were feeling about Serbia and the team etc. We both responded with "You'll just have to wait and see."

There was a reason for that, we didn't want to ruin anything for him that he can experience first hand. I read a theory in college about experiences and how artificial ones can take away from original first person views. For example: When we are in a Geography class about the Grand Canyon the teacher says, "Ok class, check out the pictures of this massive formation on page 27 of your textbook." You open it up and turn to that page and say, "Oh my goodness Ms.Smith that looks pretty big." That's that, you've seen it now and from that point on your original view is tarnished. When someone says have you ever "seen" the Grand Canyon you can respond with "yes".

Now, think back to an ancient explorer. He wakes up in the morning and decides to go for a walk in a new direction today. He's walking and sees a break in the trees. His first thought was probably, "Oh, I've reached the end of the forest." Then all of a sudden he stumbles upon, for the first time in his life, something he could never have imagined.  It was different in every way from anything he had ever "known" before, an all-engulfing, never ending, deep canyon, that for all he knows is the gateway to another world. He hasn't heard stories or descriptions or even folk tales of a place like this to fog his comprehension. If I had to guess, this person probably sat down in awe to take all of it in, or the exact opposite. He sprinted straight back to where his village was and probably attempted to describe this "un-Earthly" view and in-turn ruined it for others because his description, in no way, could do it justice.

For that man, the excitement and experience he had was as pure as they come. The same goes for a surprise birthday party that is a success or when someone is describing a story and they say "you had to be there". Both of these instances go back to this principle of first time emotions. We try to simulate these with "surprises" or scenarios that occur and will never be able to be reenacted. Like the first time you lay eyes on the person you want to spend the rest of your life with or a football player's first time putting pads on and the confusion that follows. These moments are extremely original and stick in our minds as an authentic view.

I try and apply this principle to my own life. When vacationing, most people look up pictures and post photos that they were given via a website. These photos are taken as what the photographer sees as the frame's "best moment". When you look at a picture of a dining area in Cancun, Mexico at the hotel you'll be staying at; it is probably taken at sunset, in summer, with every item in the frame perfectly placed to attempt and give you the sensation of "perfection". The truth is, you're going for Spring Break when the area looks it's worst, the chairs and umbrella have faded, the table setting is missing a salad fork, and the smell of a rotting coconut is nearby. Although the 2nd sounds worse, it is still an original experience. You have no prior view to judge this moment off of and in turn, it is "perfect". Anyone who is relatively familiar with Daoism has heard "No knowledge, is knowledge."

With my own moments in life, I strive to notice these times and let my mind really focus on what emotions, feelings, and sights are around me. In relation to football, at the end of the season when the seniors are finished and the team is at it's lowest or highest emotionally. I advise the younger players to really focus on remembering this moment of struggle. That feeling of conclusion, success or failure, happiness or sadness is crucial for future motivation and life experiences. You remember this so that you can go back there emotionally and mentally to recall the feelings you had and apply them to the present. 

This idea is often used with married couples whether they realize it or not. The wife says, "Do you remember the sunset on our first honeymoon night?" And the husband responds, "Of course I do, I'll never forget that for as long as I live." They smile, look each other in the eye and feel that same warmth that they shared in that moment of the past.

There is a quote that I got from Coach Anderson that reads something like this, "The best, shape the present to achieve the future that only they can see." When we remember what the feelings were in past experiences it helps motivate us to shape the present to earn those feelings again or avoid them for the future.

An excellent example in my life was when we beat Ankeny in the playoffs to go to the UNI-dome. I was sitting in the locker room after the game and I was so happy that I started to cry. My friend, Ben Burzacott was sitting nearby and he asked me, "Shane bro, you alright man? We won!" and all I could respond with was "We did it man, we did it." At that time I was overwhelmed with the thoughts of the past. All those hours of struggle and pushing my limits had paid off in a way that I felt accomplished, finally. I'll remember that moment for the rest of my life as the first time I had happy tears that forced me to reflect upon the past in a way I hadn't before.

Jordan, in exactly the moment I'm writing about.

He had this to use as motivation for the next 

5 championships the Chicago Bulls would win.

When speaking with people who have lived great moments they all seem to share a mutual reasoning, "Words cannot describe it." The motivation to actually live these moments drives us to do great things in the present and makes us experience things we might not have ever known were attainable had it not been for the burning desire to find the times that "words cannot even describe".

-One Life

First Snap

First day is almost in the books and the adventure thus far has been a great life experience...

I woke up for my flight in Chicago on Thursday morning to do some finishing touches to my packing. Next thing I know, I have: a shoe (yes just one), my toiletries, and a couple shirts that I refused to leave behind. Like any genius traveler, I continued to try and cram these into the non-existent remaining space in my last suitcase. It was a duffle bag, so the body weight strategy wasn't going to work on this one. Obviously, the zipper broke and duct tape saves lives. So, the duffle bag was now a beautiful flat silver in color. "Should be easy to spot in the baggage claim area though", was the first thought to run through my mind.

I show up to the airport a flawless 2 hours ahead of my flight and every time at the airport, the longest line is always the one you have to stand in. I shuffled along awkwardly with my carry on, duct tape duffle bag, and 2 standard suitcases. I was flying Polish Airlines to reach just North of Serbia by a couple hours so I was one of the few American-born people in line. I noticed random glances and people staring at me, so I started to think... "I am decked out in comfy Jordan gear with my large headphones carrying all this stuff." But that just wasn't enough of an excuse as to why these foreigners were shooting glances at me every time they thought I looked away. I walked by a kid and his dad and the kid took like, an 8 take of me. Not the standard double take. Then I hear a word that sounded like "Rafa" uttered under someones breath. Duh, my stupid long curls, headband, and tennis racket sticking out of my backpack in conglomeration with my Jordan shorts that looked eerily similar to Rafael Nadal's man-kapris was the reason these people were staring at me. I'm sure once they noticed the duct tape bag mid-way through their personal investigation, that the possibilities of me being Rafael Nadal were zero.

I hop on the plane excited to get my flight underway and over with. After about 6 hours we're nearing England and the pilot comes on the intercom and says these words, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, we have to make a security emergency landing in Glasgow." He said it in Polish first, so I got the privilege to see the expressions and responses from other people while I waited for it in English. What the **** is a "security emergency"?! Then all these people started to stand and turn around to look towards the very back of the plane and speak amongst themselves. We landed, 4 police officers came onboard, went to the back of the plane, did something, and removed someone. The curtains in the back were pulled as soon as the announcement was made, so who knows. After that, the flight was just dandy! (sarcasm font needed)

The 1.5 hour layover/security emergency removal made me miss my connecting flight to Sofia, Bulgaria so I had to make a change to catch a flight to Vienna, Austria then head to Sofia from there. At this point it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, keeping my head down, and executing until I arrived. I remember repeating "It could always be worse." in my head over and over. People are extremely well dressed in Austria and my connection to my plane towards Sofia went smoothly. 

I arrived in Sofia, not knowing it was in Bulgaria not Serbia. Naturally, I waited for everyone to leave the baggage carousel area to snatch up my semi-embarrassing although extremely efficient duct tape duffle bag. I've never been that guy that can feel cool about having a white sheet of paper with black standard Times New Roman font listing his name, but this time I was. I had no idea if the guys I was being picked up by were going to speak English. An awkward split second went by and then Aleksander said "Can I help with the bags?" So refreshing to hear that. 

We hopped in a van and started to drive; slowly but surely the conversation grew into a masterpiece of exchanged ideas about the world, food and drink, customs, weird stuff the US does, etc. Serbians are extremely well educated people, far above the average person in the states. Not saying much, but still, I had no idea. We arrive in Nis and it's not much different from Iowa climate wise, besides the mountains surrounding the city. We arrived at the building, crammed into a small elevator and rode up towards our condo we'll be living in for the next 5 months. After the elevator, I didn't know what to expect. But, like anything in life, don't judge a book by it's cover. Wireless internet, cable, wood floors, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, 2 balconies, 3 bedrooms, and a maid surprised me to say the least. I met my roommate and Cornerback Randy Fesser and so far he's nothing short of a great person.

The Head Coach, President of the club, a random friend of theirs, Randy, and I all went to a nice restaurant for some Serbian cuisine. It was a great way to start off the new life here with a variety of dishes and tastes I had never imagined. For example, meat jello. Salty, foggyish, nasty jello with meat in it. Even Coach Simovic doesn't eat it. But obviously, I gotta live life to the fullest. So I gutted it against his advice. It is just as bad as it sounds from my description. But, everything besides that was fantastic.

The first day of practice was today and coach came over to pick us up and show us a few things. We walk in the indoor facility and instantly my eyes hit the tennis court. It was clay! Never seen one before so I was like a little kid testing it out a bit on my walk by. We warmed up and started with drills on the turf side of the facility and instantly I felt that football warmth hit my heart. I was doing it! It had been so long since I had the opportunity to do this in a team atmosphere and I ate it up immediately. I was quiet to start but then Coach Simovich came over and reassured me to be vocal with our guys and help on ANYTHING I see that we could improve. 

Once he cut me loose, it was on. I switched up drills and worked a lot of hand speed with our d-linemen and edge blitzing with our linebackers. I visibly watched players get better throughout practice and that was so fulfilling. I've really started to find a passion for coaching and I now know it's something I want to do for the rest of my life.

 For it only being the first day, I'm so happy to be here and have had a handful of mini-adventures: managed to blow half the fuses in our condo (attempting to hook up my XBOX to the non-compatable outlets), took a cold shower (because I didn't know we had to turn on the water heater ahead of time), missed the exchange rate place's hours (because it's a Saturday and they close at 3:30? Who does that.), tried rushing the passer without any pads or helmet (1 pass rush=1 fat lip), and ran my own debit card at the grocery store (In Serbia everyone hands the card to the cashier and they run it for you, so I got some pretty hilarious looks after I swiped it.)

Everything that I thought I knew about Serbia was wrong. I'm glad that I get the opportunity to live and learn firsthand from this amazing place. I experience something new everyday and am trying to really focus on living every single moment to the fullest extent. First full week of practice approaches and I can't wait until I wake up in the morning and remember where I am.

-One Life

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -John Wooden

Kickoff: I am more than just Shane Wong

When I was a kid, my favorite sport was basketball. If I made a mistake like a turn over or a missed lay up I would put my head down in shame for a few seconds, walk around, and then try to get back on defense. What I didn't realize yet was, that self pity party didn't help anyone on my team and especially not myself. As I grew older I realized that all of those times I had decided to give up, rather than to fight for something bigger than myself, was such a selfish act. Then, sophomore year of high school I got a call from my brother saying that a friend had committed suicide. This was the start of something in me that I hadn't found yet. Angie was the type of person that understood what it took to be the best. She was not only gifted, beautiful, and passionate, but had a work ethic that was unmatched.

I swore that day to live my life to the fullest so that she could watch me and know, that her life deeply inspired someone else to do great things with the time that they had left. Later, after using the tools that Angie had shown me through her own life, I earned a scholarship to play football for a small school in Illinois. Although small, they supplied me with the opportunities to enroll at a school where I didn't know a soul, it was out of state, and every season they opened against a D1-AA team. All of these fit the reoccurring theme "live life to the fullest", so I went.

I came in as a freshman and immediately had an impact, I finally felt that her "presence" in my mind was starting to show in my life now. But I just didn't like the team chemistry or the way that they did things. It wasn't enough, it wasn't a FAMILY that wanted to make the most of the moments they had together. They didn't want to struggle, to grow, or to set themselves apart from the rest of the world. They accepted mediocrity and that was the exact opposite of what my life was based on. I knew of a place where there was a winning tradition, a FAMILY, and a group of individuals who wanted to come together and who were willing to make sacrifices to be the best. This place was Central College, I let the coach know I was transferring and the excitement of Central was getting the best of me during workouts.

Everything was going great, I made life friends, was doing well in school, and even trying to recruit some of my high school teammates to play with at Central. One of the guys I was texting throughout the following months was Kyle Johnson. I had always admired his athleticism, work ethic, presence on the field, and his "never back down" attitude. Kyle was torn in-between track and football after having an injury plagued senior year on the field. He had the speed of a wide receiver, the quickness of a running back, the tackling ability of a middle linebacker, and a smile that only Kyle Johnson could have.

I was sitting in science class finishing up the semester when I get a message from my best friend Kyle McClain. He knew I was in Illinois and sent me a text that read "You need to get home." My stomach dropped instantly, only best friends know when to be short like that and my mind wandered. The next 2 minutes I stayed in my seat in class and started to shake and sweat. My phone blinked and I left to read the next message. All the same emotions came back from my sophomore year of highschool.

Two of the people that I admired in my life had chosen to end their own. After thinking about both of them and why they had been such a huge part of my life, I broke it down to what they had brought to the people around them. When Kyle or Angie were around, the room seemed a little brighter, the day a little shorter, and life a little sweeter. Angie would smile as she walked through the hall or Kyle would yell some random phrase he thought was hilarious on the football field at practice, and little did they know how those small acts made everyone around them better.

In life, you have a choice. A lot of them actually. Every moment there's a window for a choice to be made, it's our decision to make a choice that benefits or hurts the universe. I knew little about these windows of opportunity and how to apply myself to them appropriately before I met Jake Anderson, former Head Strength Coach at Central College. Jake is the kind of person that shares my passion for life and the limited amount of time we have to apply our best effort to it.

I had a couple of decent football seasons at Central my sophomore and junior year and it was time for meetings with the coaching staff to recap the past season, my thoughts, and where I wanted to be for my senior year. Prior to the meetings I felt pretty good about it and what I had accomplished so far in my collegiate career, my coaches felt the opposite. They all had the same theme, "you are playing great, but we all see something bigger with you." I was angry at first because I was doing what I had been doing all along, "living life to the fullest". But that was living life to the fullest in every aspect; the good, the bad,  and everything in-between.

Coach Anderson looked me dead in the eye in our one-on-one and said "Shane, I don't even think that you've begun to tap into your potential. You're not even close." That stuck in my mind like somebody had jammed a knife in-between my eyes and snapped the blade clean off the handle. Had I not done what I set out to do? What I promised myself I would base my life on had turned to dust in 2 sentences. Something had to change, so that summer, it did.

That summer I started to go harder, for longer,  and bring the people around me with. My team and I, my FAMILY, discovered what it meant to do things not to just better yourself but everyone around you. It became an infection of my mind. I would think about my actions and how they'd affect my FAMILY in every step I took. If I had the breath to say something, it was always positive, if I had the energy to help someone along, I exerted it. But that was the whole thing. I couldn't stop. I always had the energy, the breath, the heart, the idea to never quit, because I wasn't doing it alone anymore. For Kyle and Angie of course, but it was as if they had indirectly taught me what I needed to do to uphold my promise to them and I was doing it wrong the whole time. Until now.

The picture I posted at the top is after the Wartburg game my senior year. I had just finished crying in  Coach Pfantz's arms after the seconds ticked off the clock of my last college game and honestly the thoughts that ran through my head were nothing but failures. I hadn't won a National Championship like I set out for. We didn't even make the playoffs. But then something hit me, as I was walking to shake hands I looked up, a smile took over my face, and I knew at that moment that they were proud. I dedicated everything I had to something bigger than myself with only those around me in mind and in return I had reached my "potential". Finally I understood, and I lived and played the best and happiest I had ever been.

By the way, Coach Kyle Johnson was hired my junior year and was there for every second of my struggle and was an integral part of my progress. Funny how things work out.

Now, I start a new chapter. I leave the country in 5 days with a chip on my shoulder to see how far this outlook on life can take me. Through football, I've learned many life lessons. Yes, it is just a game once the ball gets snapped. But, all those moments in-between are real.

-One Life