What It Means to Be a Trojan

I just recently overcame a big obstacle in my life. After a nearly 2-year health struggle, I ended up facing the need to have surgery. Going into it, I had already used up my strength battling the struggles before. I had already done my best, and I felt like I gave everything I could possibly give. And then I needed to give a little more. I needed to grit my teeth once again and ready for a bigger and more important battle. I knew that my next test would be the only one that mattered. In order to win, I knew I had to be thankful for everything behind me, mindful of everything ahead, and completely focused on the task at hand. And I did that, I succeeded.

I succeeded because I willed myself to feel fresh & prepared for each wave upon wave of pain I went through. I saw all the threats and I knew what they meant, but I didn't turn my back on them, and I could have. No, I faced them. In my mind, it wasn't what I could do, it was what I must do. And all this occurred before I even thought about the difficult part: the surgery itself. Soon, I faced that. Fear, agony, confusion, frustration, anger... these were my opponents. I faced a choice. I could give in to them, forget about all the skills I had that could get me through, and simply hide in a fog of medication and defeat. Or... I could man up and trust all the things that got me to where I was. I could trust in my way of doing things, my faith, knowledge, skills, courage, and my ambition to be victorious. And that's just what I did, I faced it and I succeeded.

The funny thing was I was glad to be in that situation, in my element. Sure it was hard, and it physically did not feel good to go through, but at the same time I knew all the way through that it was where I belonged. It's how I decide who I really am, in the adversity. In those moments of challenge, that's where you see the real you. So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the opportunity to do something great for myself, to say, "Hey, I'm doing the right things the right way and that's what makes me great."

That's what happens on Saturday for a whole team of Trojans, when USC takes on Ohio State. There comes a time when you realize that Trojan is not just some word or some mascot. It represents something. It means something. It means that you don't run away from the adversity. No, it's just the opposite. You seek it out. You seek the challenge. You put yourself in a position where you're under a threat from your opponent. You put yourself in a position where you can lose. Not only that, not only do you seek out your adversaries willingly, but you enjoy doing it! You are glad that your whole season, that everything you worked for and everything you're trying to achieve is all on the line.

This is a great thing. Why? No risk, no reward. What good is a victory you don't earn? What good is winning & success when it doesn't cost you your hard work, your body, your spirit? When you face your toughest tests, you want to walk away from them knowing, not feeling or thinking, but knowing that you gave every single thing you had. That you gave as much as the guy standing next to you. When you do that, there is no one that can be let down. And that is how you embody the Trojan. Darrell Rideaux once asked for everything from his teammates, telling them to go out and fight like men, fight like Trojans. And this is what you want to see.

Fight On, Trojans. Beat those Buckeyes.

The Trojan

Sports and in particular college football, with the pageantry and tradition everyone has grown accustomed to, often serve as a reminder of a time long ago, the time of gladiators. However, the beauty of college football is that it also relates to the modern struggles of everyday life. The ideals that allow an athlete to excel in competition, to meet challenges head-on, and to be the very best, are alive in all of us. They center around the virtue of achieving success the right way, and doing it the right way is the most important part. Success without adversity is not success at all. And so, we uncover a key to football excellence which just so happens to be a key to living life: adversity must be overcome.

There is a team that has drawn many admirers due to that very ability, the ability to overcome adversity. In fact, the team was so named many decades ago because of that ability. The team represents a family and an institution centered around a university that I, personally, was drawn to for my undergraduate education. This team is represented by a figure himself defined by five qualities: faithful, scholarly, skillful, courageous, and ambitious. He is The Trojan. He represents the Men of Troy, who wear the colors and play each week for the University of Southern California. It may seem odd that I choose this week to write about this team but, in my mind, it is entirely appropriate.

Faithful. Everything begins with faith, and that starts with faith in yourself. You wouldn't be where you are today if you didn't believe in your ability and way of doing things. No matter where you intend to go, you can't get there without faith in others. USC's Trojan Family is like any other, and we each need to trust some member in our family as a mentor. The mentor then needs to trust us with the freedom to put wisdom into action. If you can't make it alone, you can only make it by trusting others. By nature, trust has no guarantee, and that's why it's called being faithful.

Scholarly. If you have faith in yourself and others, you have a good foundation for success in the face of adversity, whenever it may come. The next step is effectively channeling that faith into your way of life. This is done through scholarly work. Being a scholar is not defined by studying for class, watching game film, or time on the practice field. It's how you do those things. It's not just about repetition. It's about practicing excellence, repeatedly doing the right thing the right way. Scholarly work is defined by the habit of excellence.

Skillful. In order to be in a position to use your talents successfully, you need faith and the scholarly habit of excellence. A good teacher identifies your talents and shows you methods to grow those talents to their fullest. You must trust that, and repeatedly practice those methods the right way, through any adversity. Two roads open up when you are skillful. One road is easy because it blends in and doesn't lead anywhere, it requires no effort and there is no cost. The other road is considerably more difficult because it leads everywhere, and only you can ultimately know if you're headed in the right direction. The costs are significant and it takes every ounce of effort to make actual skills match their potential.

Courageous. If you have faith, if you are scholarly, and if you put the proper effort into your skills, then courage matters. When you think about competition, in some way there's always someone out there whose situation is better than yours and someone whose situation is worse. Heart is what separates you. Heart is defined by being positive in the face of adversity, finding the good in every single situation no matter how terrible, and by never giving up. In the end, it's not about technicalities or quick fixes. Whether it's another player, an injury, or a problem in your everyday life, it's about lining up across from your opponent and taking him on, man versus man. Courage is in the act, not the result.

Ambitious. You cannot have the ambition to achieve a successful result without the courage to put your faith, your scholarship, and your skills into action. Ambition is about rising above, and these things give you the proper foundation with which to do that. Being ambitious requires you to take all of these things and do them to the best of your ability. It's not the only way to win, but it's the only way to be successful. It's the only way to do things better than they've ever been done. This is the final key to adversity. Overcoming adversity is not always about besting the thing that threatens you. It's about knowing in your heart that you did everything -- you had faith, you practiced, you nurtured your skills, you had heart -- everything you possibly could to fight, and keep fighting, adversity itself.

It's ironic that a team's best chance to win is by shifting the focus from "win at all costs" to "win the right way." The team that displays the five qualities of The Trojan in a loss is more successful than the team that wins without them. And yet, in reality, the five qualities give the team its best chance to win! This is also true in our everyday lives. Not every hardship or negative situation will go away, and the success is not in making them go away. The success is in how we respond to them. Will I despair and be pessimistic because things are just too hard for me? Or, will I be positive and find the good and never give up despite the odds? Adversity comes down to the concept of "Fight On." It's a concept I truly believe in, and one that began with past USC Trojans fighting on regardless of the score. It has continued to be represented by Trojans of the present, fighting on all manner of injury and hardship, on and off the field, athlete or not. It will always be represented by The Trojan.

Leaving the walls of Troy

After six years at the University of Southern California, this will be the first in which I am no longer associated with that institution's undergraduate education. I had an amazing experience there, and the beauty of USC is that the thing they call the Trojan Family is real. I have found there is a vast, and generous, network of Trojans and people associated with USC in some way who are willing to be of help to me and other people in many capacities. This type of network means that I am not ending my time as a Trojan or my association with the University, though I have concluded my technical education. I have many fond memories of that education.

I began as a broadcast journalism major, bright eyed and bushy tailed. For me, as a freshman, that really didn't mean very much. It took about a year of core classes before I was able to take a course at the Annenberg school. Ultimately, I ended up leaving the school and the major, but as one of many hundreds of students, every day I attended, I was treated like the next big thing in journalism. I had a wonderful adviser named Annie who guided me through the three and a half years I was registered there. She was technically the broadcast adviser, but even when I got mysteriously dosed with some common sense and switched to print journalism, she stayed with me. I worked with Jabari, the print adviser, a little and he was a great, big, friendly guy. Annie and I, however, had a great rapport.

In the fall semester of my fourth year, I took the course that was called the Newswriting Module. Essentially, it consisted of the three core writing classes, one each for broadcast, print, and online. In reality it is a brilliant set up by Annenberg to train students for what is a dwindling job market. It became clear a week or two into the semester that my limitations would put limitations on me in these courses without some assistance. Before hand, I didn't see any obstacles and neither did Annenberg, but there were obstacles. USC has another fantastic department called Disability Services & Programs (DSP) that facilitates notetaking, test taking, et al., for students with both physical and learning disabilities. In the blink of an eye, Annie was on the phone with the head of DSP setting up interdepartmental (six syllables -- and they say we don't go to class) meetings to get me what I needed.

So, I met with Annie, Jabari, my three newswriting profs, the head of DSP, the head of the Annenberg IT, and probably a couple bigwigs way beyond my pay grade. To someone more accustomed to professional expenses and problem-solving, this wasn't that big a deal. To me, I was very positively astounded at the speed, planning, and expense to which these people and the school went for me. They hooked me up with three Annenberg students for notetakers and an empty office and computer for in-class projects equipped with the mouse and microphone I needed to get my work done. That semester went great, and I do still believe the quality of my writing made all that work worth it. Unfortunately, I repaid those efforts by changing majors!

Annenberg's wise move to make students capable in any form of journalism (which I agree with) ultimately hurt me as a pure writer. The next semester would have been the Reporting Module and I would have been responsible for $625 worth of equipment to take to an assigned city to cover news there. It was double the work of newswriting, and the work had a minimal amount of writing involved. I was, expectedly, hesitant to disappoint all the people who had worked so hard for me, but they would have done that for any student and Annie always treated me like she wanted what was best for me. She pushed minors and double majors all the time, but she never pushed me.

That, at last, led me to the Creative Writing major and it has really been off to the races since then. And I certainly owe much of my success in this brand of writing to a few of the people who make up that great Trojan Family.

He may leave the walls of Troy, but he takes a piece of her in his heart, and leaves a piece of his heart behind.