My Squads:

(thoughts with less than a month until I graduate...)

Football: 30-22, (16-16), 0-4 postseason

Basketball: 76-55, (30-42), 3-4 NIT

It's natural to be unsatisfied with mediocrity. Every single person on this earth wants to think of themselves as better than average, whereas by the very definition of the word "average", half of us are sub-par. It's extremely hard to look at the person in the mirror and say, from the bottom of your heart, "meh".

I am, by all standards, exceptionally mediocre. In my four years of classes here - pending my final quarter grades - I got almost exactly a 3.0 GPA. I'm not that cool, but I'm just cool enough to have cool friends. I bet if you asked a reasonable sample size of girls how attractive I am, I wouldn't guarantee that I would be a 5, but I'm pretty confident I would finish no lower than 4 and I definitely wouldn't get above a 6.

This, y'all, is Northwestern sports. I've been here four years. Four years. Four losses in bowls. Four NIT appearances.

I could sit here and bitch and moan about that, about how unconscionable it is that Northwestern's mountaintop is about eight feet above sea level, that this school's athletics seem to have no ambition. In fact, I have done this, from time to time, in anger. But that's a really dumb way to go through life.

Northwestern sports haven't been brilliant the past few years. There have been ups, there have been downs, there have been some thrilling wins and oodles upon oodles of heartbreak.

Mediocrity isn't ideal. By definition, it is not ideal. Nobody would ever choose mediocrity. I assumed things would be betters, sports-wise, during my four years here. But I won't look back on the teams I supported in anger. It's been far from perfect, but it's been better than bad. It's been a friggin rollercoaster, and I think we're all better for having ridden it, and ridden it together.