Nicholas Hunt Ms.

Rand ENGL 1102 1/15/14 Reflective Narrative of a Personal Conflict - My College Decision College is such a great adventure for any person to experience if they have the opportunity to attend one or more during their lifetime. As children are born the goal of most parents is to start a savings fund for their child to possibly expand their education. They want their child to have a better opportunity or have the same fortune as they had when attending a university during their early adolescence. As a college student an individual has the chance to improve his or her knowledge on subjects that could range from a liberal studies class to even a mechanical engineering course, depending on their major and its requirements. They also have the chance to grow as people and maturate as most of them are living outside their homes that they grew up in with their parents, siblings, or grandparents for the first time in almost two decades. I am in that current situation right now as a 2nd semester freshman here at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. While being a student here at UNCC I have learned an abundant amount of educational and personal lessons that have changed my thoughts and opinions towards situations, people etc forever. The process of getting to this point and time in my life was wild and quite interesting when I reflect upon it now. I believe everything happens for a reason and I hope the next 3 to 4 years here at this University will be fantastic. The process of contemplating where I would like to attend college started to get serious for me during the end of my sophomore year of high school and at the beginning of my junior year. I was still pretty young and hardly educated about the process of researching colleges and

all the amenities that could appeal me to going somewhere. I was a predominant NC State fan so I always told myself that is the place where I am going to earn my college degree. I reviewed the academic accomplishment trends of students that were accepted to NC State via online and in person with people who I knew. My goal for the rest of my high school education was to try to be within the range of those high standards. During my sophomore and early junior year of high school I wanted to be a U.S. History teacher for an elementary or high school because it was and always will be my favorite subject. I also enjoy working with children. However, one day when I was exploring the variety of majors for Western Carolina University a certain study caught my attention. That major was Sports Management. Words cannot even describe how much of an impact sports are in my life. I would be a totally different person if sports did not exist. As most people know I am probably one of the biggest sports fanatics in the world. I knew this was the major for me and I started to research the classes that go along with the major as well as other universities that had the course available for students to take. Now that I knew the major I wanted to take in college I applied to four universities my senior year of high school that had the sports management available. They were Western Carolina University, Wingate University, Gardner-Webb University and NC State University. I ended up being declined admission to NC State and accepted into the other three schools. I was not devastated NCSU denied my acceptance but I was still upset since my ultimate goal once graduating high school was to attend there. Believe it or not I think I still wouldnt have attended there anyways because the campus is large and Raleigh is still pretty far from my home. Wingate and Gardner-Webb are private schools so I was expecting to get into their programs and I met Western Carolinas academic standards easily. My Mom would ask me, why are you not excited

about being accepted to multiple colleges? Since I was in middle school I have expected myself to attend a college, get my degree and find a job immediately as society has changed drastically since my parents were in college. I wanted to be close to a metropolitan area that had pro sports teams that I could potentially network myself to and possibly have an internship with. Plus I wanted to go to some games too. By Gods crazy workings he set up an amazing moment for me. My high schools internship coordinator, Mrs. Sharon Turner, told me to come meet her at our local library in Hickory one day during the summer of 2012 to discuss my internship plans for my last two semesters of high school. Once I arrived there she updated the status of my two possible occasions. She told me that I will officially be an assistant P.E. teacher/intern first semester at my former elementary school, Clyde Campbell. She however was still cooperating with Lenoir Rhyne University about whether I could assist the employees in their athletic department. Mrs. Turner said that the Athletic Director, Neil McGeachy, was not cooperating efficiently but she will notify me whenever she had the chance to talk to him about my possible opportunity. Along with the cooperation with the athletic department we both discussed about what my schedule would look like as I also had golf season during the same time period. I told her that 4th period was probably the most sufficient as I could assist for an hours worth at least if I had practice that same day. The course where my high school practiced was only a 20-minute drive away. If I had a match I would just not go to LRU and just hangout in the school library until I was dismissed. Mrs. Turner and her sweet self also wanted to just catch up on things and see how my summer was going. Before our meeting I told her about my college plans and that I was planning to major in sports management. I also had notified her about the schools that I had been accepted into and

some how she knew I was uncomfortable with my choices. During our meeting she told me to look at UNCC and if my major was available there. I did not even think about UNC Charlotte until she had pointed it out right then during a discussion that had nothing to do with college in the first place. I could have not asked for a more special moment. I consider Mrs. Turner an angel sent to comfort me and ultimately change my life. I went straight home from the public library and started my research about the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Here at UNCC there is not a sports management major but there is a business administration/business management major. I was pretty disappointed. I became overwhelmed with anxiety and felt completely lost on where I wanted to attend college. I recollected myself within a couple weeks. I then started to explore the paths of successful business people in the sports industry and also received some great advice from family and friends of mine. A sports agent I know, whose name is Wesley Spencer, probably helped me out the most. He is a graduate of UNCC and voluntarily told me the steps he took on getting a job in the sports field and being successful on the job too. I then came to realize that if I wanted to work in the sports field for a professional team or a college athletic department it was better for me to earn a business management degree rather than a sports management degree. If you graduate with a sports management degree you have more of a chance running a YMCA than working for a renowned professional sports team. I do not know why it is that way but when you do think about it sports teams, such as the Carolina Panthers, are a corporation and are just like any other business. Their goal is to make a profit. On my college decision day it was between the Wingate University Bulldogs and the UNCC 49ers. I loved both campuses and both are close to uptown Charlotte. UNCC has a much higher enrollment and I didnt know if I could focus and get a connection with my professors

with hundreds of students in my classes. Wingate is much smaller and I would have a chance to get to know people a lot better than just hardly talking to a new person each day on a semi-big campus. The small college experience is the reason why my mom went to her college and this is what she believed would be the best fit for me as well. My other family members said that they would be happy know matter what I college I chose to attend. I have been blessed to have a family that is in a good economic standing, so I did not have to worry about the cost of each school as we could afford all four years of my education at either school. I literally couldnt decide where I wanted to go up until the last hour before I had to reveal to my Mom and my grandparents visiting from Florida. I chose to come to UNCC because I believe that there will be more opportunities available for me during my educational period and also once I graduate with a B.S.B.A. in Management. My whole family was ecstatic giving me hugs, high fives, kisses and probably more excited than I was. In my eyes yeah its a new chapter in my life but I still have to go to school for 4 to 6 more years. It is a short commute from campus to the heart of Charlotte and only a hour drive to my home in Hickory. I am generally a shy person but I want to get rid of this obstacle that has had a tremendous affect on me. If I want to be a successful manager I need to overcome this intimidation and lead others by example. The university has an assortment of clubs that I had a particularly liking to and the campus student life is much more diverse. I can now have the opportunity to learn about other cultures and find ways to connect with the people included in them. Ultimately when I toured this school I felt at home and I believe there is nothing else you can ask for so that others, including myself, could feel comfortable when getting a world-renowned education. Man time sure does fly by. !