Well, that flew by. It seems like only yesterday I was a starry-eyed freshman sitting in the old barn trying to figure out what in the world the upperclassmen were shouting before erupting with a cheer of “BC Sucks!”
“We can say that?” I remember thinking upon hearing the certain vulgarity that echoed throughout Walter Brown Arena from Section 8 before the second period and during every Terrier power play.
Some 80 home men’s hockey games and 50 home basketball games have passed — that certain cheer has transformed to “Rough ‘Em Up” after complaints a couple years ago — and for us seniors, watching a BU athletic event will never quite be the same.
Looking at the tail end of that last sentence scares me a little. Never quite be the same.
I’m not a person who likes change. People who know me best are aware of that. Many of you traveled from all over the country — and world — to come to school here. My endeavor to BU took me 25 minutes up the road from my house and I still felt homesick for my first month of college or so. What can I say — I’m a mama’s boy and didn’t want to stray too far from Fenway Park.
Sleeping somewhere new and not having my closest friends to hang out with every day was a complete shock to me. Because of this, I struggled at first to get adapted to my new environment on Bay State Road. The one thing that was familiar to me, however, was heading over to Walter Brown Arena and watching the Scarlet and White. Since I was a kid I’d gone to games there with my dad and friends from home. I’d also played several games on that ice growing up, with me and all my teammates imagining we were Chris Drury or Jay Pandolfo.
It’s really amazing the effect sports can have on our lives at the times you least expect. That building, along with Agganis Arena, went a long way toward easing me into my experience here. Memories made with friends while sitting in the stands, along with the friendships I made with players who played on the team I’d looked up to my whole life, helped make the past four years here more enjoyable than I ever could have expected them to be.
The evolution of how things appear to you as you grow up is something I find funny looking back. I remember refusing to eat Easter dinner in 1997 when North Dakota beat BU in the national championship. I didn’t want to hear anyone in my family tell me it was OK that these players I looked up to had just let me down.
Flash forward a little over a decade, and the perspective is a little bit different. Players who have thrown on that same sweater the past four years — that same sweater I used to worship — are now friends who I’ll receive my diploma with in just a few weeks. That, more than anything, shows exactly how much times are a-changin’.
The Icedogs used to just be little ants on TV or on the ice in front of me. Now, those hockey players here are my peers and great friends. The little kid I was would never have believed current-day me if I told him that.
Before I sign off from this paper forever — or at least until a guest column next year — I’ve got one thing I need to take care of. Since I started writing columns for the FreeP, I’ve promised Kevin Kielt and Ryan Monaghan I’d write commentaries explaining to the world just how awesome they are. Since this is my last chance to get it done while I’m here, this one goes out to you guys.
(On a sidenote, possibly the most impressive achievement of the entire Boston Marathon came from Monaghan. Unable to run the marathon after tearing his Achilles about two weeks prior, he finished the last two miles to the finish line with his dad who was running the race — on his crutches. Not too shabby.)
As I leave you and venture off into the real world — wherever that job in the middle of nowhere takes me — I’ll give you underclassmen a piece of advice I’ve learned. Don’t get so worked up about the wins and losses. Enjoy the games with your friends and realize it’s not going to be like this forever. You won’t be able to root as passionately for your alma mater ever again once you leave this place.
So soak it all in when you’re sitting in Section 118, drink a few beers (before and) at the games and go crazy when the red light goes on as the puck tickles twine for BU. I sure know me and my friends did. Go Terriers.
Chris Lyons, a senior in the College of Communication, is a former columnist for The Daily Free Press.