The draft awaits us all

by Paul Shugar
Staff Writer

For every David Carr, there are millions of guys who have no idea where they are going. Which one are you?

I ask because the draft waits for many of my graduating friends. Are you a first-round engineering pick? Do you think your calculus speed is fast enough for General Electric?

How about you, Mr. Economics major? You realized you drank a little too much and forgot supply and demand. Maybe studying would have given you more utility than smoking marijuana.

Have you ever looked at yourself and wondered where Mel Kiper Jr. might rank you? All of a sudden getting arrested at the time-change riots seems like a bad call.

“Yeah, that business major has all the skills. He could go a long way for any company, but people might be wary of him. There was an incident with a girl dressed as a nun on Halloween last year.”

People do not realize athletes and regular people have a lot in common. Many times I have watched people hold athletes to an unfair standard.

“Man, if I had his talent I would not waste it away,” my friends said after Steve Bellisari got his drunk-driving charge in the fall.

Of course, my friend said this after taking a swig of beer.

Athletes are not the only ones who waste talent. People make bigger deals about an athlete who appears to blow a shot at his dream. But how many people throw away shots at their dreams in college?

I wish I could say my dream, working for the Boston Globe, is waiting for me instead of some small-town paper. But my life is not over, and I should not throw away my dream of having a great journalism career.

I am sure some no-name quarterback who was not drafted had dreams of playing for the Dallas Cowboys and not the CFL.

The experiences of an NFL player show us life is unexpected. You might start at Carolina instead of Green Bay, but you can make it despite the initial situation.

For every Troy Aikman success story there are washouts. Ryan Leaf and Danny Wuerffel hit stumbling blocks, but their stories might not yet be written. Leaf could be a future All-Pro and Wuerffel, well, a great kindergarten teacher.

Maybe athletes show us that life does not end after college when the dream job you told your junior high counselor you wanted never happens. If you passionately do what you love, then maybe it does not matter if it is big or small time.

With hope many of us — like Carr — wake up and enjoy reality instead of letting our dreams turn into haunting nightmares.

 

— Shugar is quite happy he is still a junior journalism major. Send him an e-mail at Azucar2442@hotmail.com.