Don’t let the little things in life get the best of you

There are two weight rooms on campus, one that is open to only athletes which is located on the second level in the Ross Armstrong Physical Education building.  The other is open to the general public, including students, in the NPAC.

Obviously the scale seems a little tipped, since the town has over 5,500 people, including non-athletic students, to share the NPAC weight room while athletes have their own private weight room with less than 350 athletes.

But this isn’t a factor to me.  The athletes at CSC train themselves at levels that don’t need interference by some person who wants to lose five pounds before summer.  Athletes need their own weight room to train at levels that general students do not go through.

If it were up to me the athletic weight room would be rebuilt with twice the area, with twice the equipment, and with nothing but pure metal rocking out of the speakers. But funding and reality stop my plan.

My point being, athletes completely deserve their own weight room and the history of CSC athletics proves as to why.  I highly support Chadron Athletes.

But every Tuesday and Thursday the NPAC weight room, which is open for the general public and CSC students, is closed so athletes can train.  Some say “Well, it’s just closed for an hour twice a week,” and “Well, the athletes train in the NPAC so they don’t have to walk all the way over to the Armstrong building just to lift.”

Both points do not justify why the general public and student weight room is closed so that athletes can lift, despite them having their own weight room a little over one hundred yards away.

I took it upon myself to go lift in the Armstrong weight room (which is athlete’s only) after I was kicked out of the NPAC weight room so the wrestling team could lift.  I got in one set of presses before a coach (who will remain nameless) asked me to leave.

I didn’t argue, but I pointed out that I was kicked out of the NPAC weight room in “mid-lift,” but my attempt to guilt him into letting me finish lifting failed.

It wasn’t even an hour later when I tried to sneak back in to the Armstrong gym and noticed the doors were locked.  So there I sat, on a bench press so close but so far away to the locked up facility behind me while a winter sports team was lifting away in the NPAC weight room.

I then realized I had a problem, and it wasn’t that athletes were taking over the public weight room.

My problem was that I didn’t want to change my lifting schedule and I would rather risk getting in trouble than just lifting at another time.

Yes, there are injustices.  But one can overcome this without a “March on Washington.” I spoke with some people and explained the situation.

I haven’t been kicked out of the weight room since, and I have not heard about anyone else getting kicked out during athletes lifting in the NPAC.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you have a problem, talk to someone about it. I spoke with the Graduate Assistants of the wrestling team before I ran off to tell the President of the college, and before I knew it there wasn’t a problem anymore.

There are enough real problems in the world without me having to get upset over what time I choose to lift.

So I leave everyone with this: choose your battles. Realize what is trivial and what is worth fighting for.