The Football Life

      The other day I happened to stumble across a movie that I consider to be the best movie ever made, Remember the Titans. Some people may agree, some may disagree, but I stand by my opinion of it being one of the greatest ever made. The thing about the movie that hits home the most is it makes me think about the 4 years I spent playing football in high school. I can honestly say that those 4 years shaped me into the person that I am today, for both good reasons and bad reasons. There is just something about playing high school football that is different from any other sport.

        My situation during my time playing was, what I consider, a bit unique because I came into my freshman year to play on a team with roughly 110 guys. Throughout the next few years, the number slowly dwindled down to, what my coach called, the Magnificent 17. Don’t get me wrong, that’s one of the corniest names I’ve ever heard, but it really made total sense. The 17 of us that played those 4 years together will, hopefully, be friends forever. Some of those guys I consider my best friends, most of them I consider great friends, but all of them were flat out, great people.

The thing about playing high school football is that it’s the first chance for a boy to really test his toughness and passion. I really miss the early mornings during summer, waking up at 6:30 in the morning to drive to school, while knowing that the only thing you have to look forward to is getting your ass kicked and running until you cannot run anymore. I miss the grueling days in August of waking up early to go to your first two-a-day, knowing that you are not prepared for what lied ahead. The up-downs sucked, the bear crawls were terrible, and the end of practice sprints were the worst. But if a player really thinks about it, you miss those times because your limits were being tested and you were really giving every ounce of effort in order to not be that guy who let the team down.

However, the one thing I miss the most, and I’m sure every football player could agree with me, was GAMEDAY. Wearing that jersey to school and knowing that really nothing you learned in class was very important, and all you were thinking about was the game later that night. Now with my school, we went about our game-days a certain way, which probably is similar to other schools. After 5^th everyone would gather in the football classroom and really just relax and get out of the sun, after that we had pre-game dinner. Pre-game dinners were always a highlight, because you never knew who was going get pranked that day. There were numerous victims to the loosened parmesan shakers, and also the classic “punching a hole in the bottom of someone’s cup so their drink leaked all over the table”. After the dinner was one of my favorite parts. The time between dinner being finished and the game starting were always the times to get focused and psyched up. For those guys whose careers began and ended in high school really appreciated these moments because this was your time to feel like you were living your dream.

I really do miss playing the wonderful game they call football. After finishing my senior year of high school, I’ve always felt a little gap in my life because I don’t have those games to look forward to, or the two-a-days to fear. I never realized it while I was actually playing, how much I would really miss playing the game. I thought that maybe I’d miss it a little bit, but never guessed that I’d miss it like this. Whether watching Remember the Titans, Friday Nigh Lights, or even just watching a regular game, I miss it more and more and hope that one day I’ll have it back in my life.  

                

What I Learned This Semester/Winter Break

     The fall semester of 2011 was one that I will always look back on and consider it one of the greatest achievements of my academic career. Many people don't know that this semester I was fighting for my right to stay at my school, and was required to get a 3.0 in order to stay. Many people would argue that a 3.0 is nothing to drastic to be asked for from a student at a university like the one I go to. However for myself, it was a tall order, and one that I had no certainty of being able to accomplish. Throughout August up until early December, I put work and school in front of social life and partying. Instead of spending my Friday and Saturday nights getting piss drunk or doing whatever was available for me to partake in, I chose to pass, in order to be at 100% for when I needed to do homework, write an essay, or study for a test. I missed plenty of parties, passed on many beers/shots and declined many invitations for other social gatherings, all for the sole purpose of accomplishing my goal. In the end, I was successful with my goal, earning a 3.0, and earning the right to stay at my school.

     With this I thought that all of my stress had ended and that I would be able to roll into my winter break and be able to party every night and enjoy my time at home with my friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast these last 3 weeks of being able to cut loose and really just enjoy my free time. I made up for the time I missed out on this semester by laughing and smiling as much as possible this break. I spent countless hours with my friends doing anything and everything, while also spending an immense amount of time with my family and enjoying their company as much as I could possibly stand. Holidays were a joy. Hannukah, Christmas, and New Years were all ones that I will remember for a long time, for both positive and negative reasons.

     One thing that really was something that came to my attention was the fact that a lot of the people I know were all beginning to start their paths on where they were going to take their lives. Whether it was making a home for themselves at their respective schools or with their teams. People were really starting to separate themselves from the pack of the many people I consider to be my friends/acquaintances. This is something that is a bit of a landmark in a persons life. It's a moment when a person has to start to think about what they want to do with their lives. Do they want to stay in their comfort zone and stay with the people that they have known for so long and have grown such a great bond with, or do they want to begin to broaden their horizons and start on a new, different path in this part of their life? I have come to realize that I am at that point in my life and that I have to decide soon what path I want to take. It's one of the hardest decisions a person has to make. Frankly, I have no idea what I want to do. Even if I did, I don't know the first thing I would do in order to go in the direction that I chose. There are so many reasons to go either way. On one side you have a sense of great comfort and a feeling that nothing needs to be changed and that you can settle on this side for life. But on the other side you have a sense of growing up and becoming someone that you have never thought you could become. Move on and grow or stay comfortable and go with a sure thing? This is one of life's questions that many people struggle with and never really figure out the answer to until they reach the point where they are forced into making a decision. It is one that I really have to think about and figure out what is best for me.

     On another note, I did a lot of other thinking and observing during my time home over this break. Really trying to figure out stuff in my life and thinking about the people I have in my life and how they effect me. I realized that while I am trying to figure out what path I want to take with my life, I am still trying to figure out what kind of person I am. Do I want to try and stay a teenage hooligan who tries to have as much fun as possible every night of the week as possible, or do I want to grow up and begin to be the mature man that my parents see in me and that frankly, I see in me. I observed the people I ran into over break, talked to via text, Facebook or twitter, and really tried to see what others had decided to do. I saw that it was pretty even between people who had taken that step towards maturity and adulthood, and those who are still trying to hold on to every last bit of childhood/teenagehood that they can before having to commit to taking that step to adulthood. It's another one of those things that I have to figure out in my life and am hoping to figure out sooner than later.

What I'm Thankful For

        In the spirit of the recent holiday that took place, Thanksgiving, I felt this would be a great time to start my blog. I feel this is a great way for me to express my thoughts and feelings about my every day experiences, that didn't involve bugging everyone on Facebook. So what I decided to do is to explain to everyone what I am thankful for at this time of year, my friends and family.     Here are some people that really make me thankful:

        I have my father Peter, also known as "Pete" "Big Man" "Pops" or my favorite "Dad". He is the one who raised me to keep a level head and to always listen to my teachers, coaches, and my mom. He has been the one who has made sure to keep me in line and stay humble and appreciative about what I have in life and to appreciate the things around me and to not focus too much on what I don't' have and to focus on what I have at the time. He has been to every soccer game, basketball game, baseball game, football game, ANY GAME. He has been the dad that almost any kid could hope for (except for maybe Kobe, that'd be pretty cool). I never really TOTALLY appreciated what he did for me until last spring when I had a major school crisis (we won't go into details), and he dropped what he was doing at work, ran home, packed a bag of clothes, and drove 6 and a half hours out to Tucson, Arizona just to help me with what I was going through. I am pretty sure there aren't many kids, children or adults that can say that family member did something for them like what my dad did. He shows love when I need love, he shows me tough love when I deserve it, but most importantly he shows the care and desire to want to help me in whatever it is that I do.

      Then there is my sister Katie. She's known around town as "Katie Greenthal". Thats it, she isn't known as just "Katie", or "Adam's Sister", but strictly "Katie Greenthal". It's safe to say that she's numero uno when it comes to the Greenthal Children chart. I mean even my grandpa admitted that she's holding the crown as the number one Greenthal Cousin in the family. But who is to argue that? 3.5 GPA all through high school? Queen of the Show Choir, oh wait, I mean..... SOUND FX. Now an official sorority senior at Boston University and just has plan to do big things in the near future. My sister is one for the record books. She knows a lot about me, sometimes more than she cares to know, but thats because she can handle my life probably better than I can. She's as supportive as a sister could possibly get, and then more. However, she isn't the type of sister that is going to try to be a sweet sister who says I'm right in every argument I share with her, she's the type that will give me a reality check if I'm wrong and straighten me out. She has a sort of Iron Fist when it comes to being a supportive sister. Most of the time I don't really appreciate it when she puts me in my place, most of the time because I want her to just agree with me and be done with it. But what kind of person would I be if I went through life thinking that I was right in every argument I was in without actually listening to other peoples opinions? Definitely not the number 3 Greenthal Cousin on the Cousin Chart. AY YO!

                                           The final piece to the puzzle is my mom. She is the one who actually inspired me to start this blog because she has one herself, that has blossomed into the hot topic among the Real Housewives of Los Alamitos (emptyhousefullmind.com). She writes about being an emptynester, which means parents who are living without their children because they are finally gone. She has really made blogging a big part in her life and she says its a great way to voice your thoughts and feelings in a safe way. My mom is my rock. She is the one who held my hand when I crossed the street when I was younger. She packed my lunches, drove me to school, picked me up, took me to practice, picked me up from practice, made dinner, tucked me in at night and always gave me her signature kiss on the forehead and wished me a good night sleep. And that was all before I got to high school and really started to need help. My mom is the best, hands down, done deal, no if's and's or but's about it. She did anything and everything for me, before I turned 18. However, even though I don't live at home anymore, I still feel she's always at my side helping me along. If I really wanted to get into great detail about how great my mom is compared to anyone else's, it would take quite a while and I do not have enough time to do that. All you need to know is that she is the greatest person I know. We butt heads a lot and have many moments where we are at each others throats, but she loves me as much as anyone could love a human being, and I am thankful for that.
Now here comes the part where I talk about my friends....

          Bradley Hartong. Brad Brandenburg. Josh Gasser. Kyle Nault. Mo Kreitenberg. Tanner Strong. Christian Couch. These are the names of 7 of the greatest friends I have had the pleasure to call THE BUDS. I have met each one of these guys in a different stage in my life, and they have all cemented their spots in my life forever (whether its for good or bad reasons). These are the guys, who even 20 years from now, we will be sitting around a table talking football, girls, life, or pretty much anything you can think of. Each one of them has a unique quality or aspect about them that makes them so unique in our group of friends, which is why I feel you would struggle to find another group of guys like us. The great thing about our group is that we are exclusive to other people. We don't really ever feel territorial around other guys that we are with and feel that we have to exclude people from joining us in whatever it is we are doing. Not saying that I know anyone that does that, but I just felt it was noteworthy. All of us have been responsible for all of us branching out to different, because we spread out in a way that we go find people that we like, and bring them back to meet the rest of us and we make new friends along the way. One of these days I will go into more detail about these guys and why they make such an impact on me, but once again, I do not have enough time to get into that.
        This blog is something that I hope to make a major part of my every day life. I hope that the people who read this take me seriously and do not take this as a joke.