"After all of that glory, all of that triumph, it was a short walk back to my room. Hundreds of parents and professors and coaches and students were still milling about as I stepped in and closed the door. I had already packed up most of my things. The walls were bare concrete blocks again. My bed was stripped. My desk was cleaned off and my duffel was full. I suddenly felt incredibly sad. I sat down on the edge of the bed and took a big deep breath. I didn’t want to leave. What the heck am I going to do now? I thought. For all of my big dreams, big goals, big hopes, I hadn’t spent any time thinking about what I was going to do once I graduated. I guess some part of me, right up until that moment when I stood up and cheered and threw my hat in the air, maybe some part of me didn’t fully believe that it was ever going to happen. I prayed for it to happen. I convinced myself that I knew it would happen. I willed it to happen. But now that it had, I sat there dumbstruck. I felt so happy, so fulfilled, so overwhelmed, so proud – and so lost. What am I gonna do now?"

-Rudy Ruettiger, Rudy: My Story

When I graduated college and my track and field career ended, I had no idea who I was and what I was going to do for the rest of my life. Did I peak at 22? Would I have to get a real job? That felt like giving up on everything I’d ever dreamed of…it felt like I was accepting the fate of disappearing into the world, being someone who would always be less than. I thought my one true calling in life was to go to the Olympics in the triple jump. That one thing I dreamed about every night, set goals for, focused on, never lost sight of. When reality set in, I was nowhere near that caliber of athlete. The furthest I’d ever jumped was five feet short of Olympic qualification.  I believed, though, that like Rudy, I could will this dream to come true. But, as my graduation from Oglethorpe University loomed closer and with real life fast approaching, I had to come to grips with the end of my organized athletic career and prepare to enter the corporate world.

Going on job interview after job interview after I graduated, I was both unexcited about the prospect of getting a real job and simultaneously overlooked by every employer I sat in front of. I believed that I would be set apart from other applicants simply because of my athletic background, but I wasn’t. Oglethorpe provided me with all the tools I needed to succeed post-grad, but I lacked any experience off the track and out of the classroom, because I chose to solely be a student-athlete. I didn’t have the necessary internships or jobs that would qualify me for the next phase of my life. These rejections had me feeling ill-equipped to even set foot on the path I was apparently supposed to be on next.

The truth of the matter was, I didn’t even want the jobs I was applying for. The only thing I ever wanted to be was an athlete. I felt valuel