Imagine being a student-athlete, balancing school life and sports life. You may think it is a simple task, but you may not know what it takes to balance these two things unless you are in the position or hear the story of someone’s real-life experience. I had the chance to interview a friend of mine, Larry Gbomina. Larry plays soccer here at Dean, and I had the chance to learn about his college experience of balancing athletics and studies.
While talking with Larry, he explained that he loves soccer but not school. Being a student-athlete was a life experience for Larry, and some of the bests moments of his life were when he was on the field being a part of a team. However, being a student-athlete was not easy for him, as some of the lowest moments of his college experience tied into being a college athlete.
Being on the field for Larry is everything. I asked, “How does it feel when you first step foot on the field?” Larry responded, “Honestly, I can’t even explain it. It’s like a different type of excitement, like a motivational boost. It’s like whenever I’m on the field during a game, I’m just locked in and not even worrying about what else is going on the outside”. Larry explained that the outside is the real world. For Larry, soccer was an escape. He told me, “The actual school part of college was very un-motivational, which made it stressful at times. Sometimes I would have so much on my mind between school and life that I can’t even focus on one thing, so I would just have to pick up my soccer ball, put my cleats on and head to the field”.
After Larry told me this, I asked, “If you did not play soccer, how else do you think you would manage your school life?” Without hesitation, Larry said, “I don’t even think I would still be here. If it was not for me playing soccer, I do not think there would be no point of me being here.” Larry’s response had me questioning his thoughts on obtaining his degree. I wondered if he thought having his degree would help him in the future. Larry told me he loves to record videos and said, “that’s what I’m passionate about”. I asked him about his thoughts on the video production courses here at Dean. Larry explained how throughout his experience in his video production courses, he taught himself everything he knows about recording and editing. He built his creativity himself, and Dean did not teach him how to make his visions come to life in terms of making a music video, which he had to figure out himself.
To finalize our interview, I asked Larry to consider the good and bad times he experienced here at Dean. Then I asked him, “with keeping your college experience in mind, if you had another chance would you do college again?" He replied, “No, I wouldn’t because honestly, I could have just focused on my video and pursued working toward that. School will help me to get the degree, but me actually going out and recording and making videos will help me get noticed and build my brand.
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