The first time I technically saw a famous athlete was before I even came here to Bloomington. Eriq Zavaleta not only went to my high school, but was on my soccer team, and worked at the same restaurant as me. Eriq is about as famous/talented as you can get on this campus being one of the top soccer players not only in the Big Ten, but in the country. The “shock and awe” phase you get when you see an athlete didn’t really hit me with him, so I had to rely on my second encounter; Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell. Kevin is a fellow sophomore and the first time I saw him was a Wednesday morning after my 8am class at the food court. I saw him in line and was utterly shocked to find, I’m the same height as him! Being a shrimp-cake my entire life, that was probably the highlight of my semester so far. Since that point, I have seen almost every basketball player somewhere around campus and I have to say the awe doesn’t really go away. I am astounded every time I see one of them even though they are really just students like you and me. Almost every Saturday I see Yogi, Hanner Mosquera-Parea, and Jeremy Hollowell eating lunch.
All in all the first couple of times you see a “celebrity” on campus, you will be shell shocked and in awe that you’re in close proximity to a superstar athlete, but you will eventually get used to it. You see some of them every week or even every day for some of us, and you will always have that feeling of “Holy cow that was ______(fill in athlete) I can’t believe it!” but your outer expression will fade. Be lucky you get to be on such a beautiful campus with so many talented individuals and take the time to acknowledge them and say hey every now and again, they’re students just like you and me…. just with freakish athletic ability.
-Jordan Miller
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