Sunday Night With John: An International Education

When I was 18, I drove 10 hours across three states from my hometown of Orwell, Ohio to Davenport, Iowa and walked into my first open gym as a college basketball player at Marycrest International University.  It was a small little college nestled on the side of the hill in town.  Upon my arrival, I promptly began to meet my teammates.  There was V and Amir from Bosnia, John from London, Joe from the British Virgin Islands, the twins from inner city Chicago, that fact was debated a lot, Tony from Virginia, Matt from Illinois and a couple of guys from Iowa. I was immediately caught off guard by how a small school in the middle of Iowa brought together so many people from all around the world.

After one or two open gyms I realized in I was for a basketball education. I was no longer one of the best players. I was going to spend a year sitting the bench learning and getting beat regularly in open gym and practice by guys better at basketball.  Open gym soon gave way to practice, practices gave way to the season beginning and the long bus ride road trips began.  Typical conversations occurred between this group of guys from all over the world like, what was it like growing up where you did? But these conversations just took a little while longer to explain because we all had such different backgrounds. I needed context when V and Amir discussed growing up in war torn Bosnia and we would always try to harass Jo about coming to school in Iowa when he grew up on an Island in the Caribbean. I would just chuckle as he bundled up for cold weather.

As for me, I was a hurt and broken young man from Ohio coming out of the fog of Dad and Eric’s death. I just wanted to play basketball, have fun, and get an education. But what I didn’t realize was how much I was learning about the world through my teammates. As I listened to their stories, my view of the world was forced to expand. Before, I looked at life through strictly my own lens. Now I was learning how kids grew up in inner cities, on islands and in a country torn apart by war. It forced me to take another look at the losses I experienced in my early life and it opened my eyes to the fact that I wasn’t the only one who took the long way to the college basketball court. I had to acknowledge others struggles and on those long bus rides I found myself changing my view about life.

We can become narrowed in our view of the world if we only seek out people just like us. Through my experiences at Marycrest I realized that we must stretch ourselves to realize that there is some common ground between inner city Chicago, Bosnia, London and Orwell, Ohio.  I realized that the death’s I experienced at an early age did not isolate me from the world.  I am not the only one who has overcome a rough start to later feel the joy of reaching my first mountaintop.

I went to college to play basketball...check. I went to college to have fun…check. I went to college for an education…check. I went to college to connect deeply with others vastly different from me and find common ground…check.  It was the just the type of learning I needed to do and has certainly helped to shape the person I am today.