It’s great to be back in Grinnell for another semester. We just wrapped up our second week of classes, although based on how much work I’ve been doing it already feels like midterms. It doesn’t help that in my infinite wisdom I decided to schedule all four of my classes in a row, meaning every hour I have ten minutes to scurry across campus on sheets of ice in subzero temperatures.

I’ve also begun writing weekly articles covering campus sports for the Scarlet and Black, our campus newspaper at Grinnell. I’ll be posting my most recent one in full shortly, but until then here’s a link to last week’s article. Although writing for the S&B doesn’t pay much, it’s a great way to keep working on my writing ability, especially when I’m assigned to cover sports that I don’t know as well as football. I also get to meet cool people and pretend that I’m important, so I’d chalk that up as a plus. I’ve also been asked to begin providing content for the Grinnell Football blog, a responsibility I’m not quite sure I should be trusted with. Hopefully as long as I stay away from the fart jokes our coaching staff will tolerate my increased online presence.

With the advent of a new semester comes constant reminders from professors and coaches that I should be doing schoolwork, although I still find myself playing unhealthy amounts of Mario Kart. The way I see it, I don’t need a logic class when I’ve learned enough logic about how to properly use green shells on Rainbow Road. Why should I be concerned with how to start my paper when I’m still trying to finish watching season 4 of Dexter?

I should feel nice and recharged, having had five weeks off to play Call of Duty and blow bubbles with my own spit. But the academic rigors of Grinnell have reduced my willpower to shreds in a matter of two weeks.

It doesn’t help that since I’ve been back, Iowa has been in a consistently ball-freezing state of weather. I’d rather not get up at 6 AM to lift with the team when it’s almost cold enough to make my snot freeze (not to mention, it’s 6 in the frickin’ morning). To counteract the extra harsh cold brought on by living somewhere that doesn’t have mountains to protect me from the wind, I now have an Under Armour ski mask/face guard/burglar’s accessory.

Above: Am I about to break into your house or just heading to the dining hall? You decide.

I get some weird looks walking around on campus looking like a 265-pound ninja, but I figure since I chose to be in Iowa instead of California I have to figure out a way to keep from going into cold shock and hypothermia.

Things have been going especially well for football. I’m trying to step up and be more of a leader for the team now that I actually know the guys I’m playing with a lot better. At CC, I found that I grew a lot closer to my teammates in the offseason, and that’s definitely the case here at Grinnell. I see most of the guys working out in the weight room and in Coach Hawsey’s speed and conditioning class, and we all hang out on the weekends and have a good time. Being able to still be a part of football (and being able to go out and have fun on the weekends) is what keeps us all sane during tough classes.

We’re focusing on doing a better job of everything as a team, whether that means pranking Coach Hawsey (I didn’t do it, Coach) or reaching out to the community. Tonight at 7 we’re hosting a fundraiser to help out the family of a Grinnell College staff member whose house recently burned down. We’re having campus celebrity and linebacker extraordinaire Cody Weber do his guitar and singing thing to attract some donations for the whole shindig. I had originally considered live blogging the event because it’s a positive thing for Grinnell Football and the College as a whole. I then decided that lugging my computer around a crowded concert/fundraiser was probably a great way to break my computer, so now I’ll be semi-live tweeting the whole event on my Twitter page. Check it out if you think you’re cool enough.

Although I plan on talking about the event tomorrow-ish, as well as dropping some other goodies on the blog this weekend (keep an eye out for a paper from my Coaching Methods class), I thought I’d leave everyone with the music of Grinnell’s own Cody Weber:

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at chris [at] thed3experience.com. All original material copyright © 2008-2010 Chris Jarmon.

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Posted: 02|5|10 at 3:34 pm. Filed under: My Life as a D3 Player.
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