Like I said on the Student Managing page, I immediately knew this program was something I wanted to be a part of once I heard about it.  So I volunteered and helped out at as many practices and games as I could throughout my freshman and sophomore years.  I worked spring practice (mainly with the tight ends) and the Blue & Gold game.  Became friends with the other sophomore managers. Wrote my evaluations and ranked who I thought should be the next 21 managers.  The last day of classes before finals, we found out whether we had made the program or not.

I was not in the 21.  I was chosen as the second alternate.

I was absolutely crushed when I read my letter.  I had never worked so hard for anything before and not achieved the result I wanted.  But I knew I could not let that have a negative impact on the rest of my time at ND.  I added another class to my fall schedule and when I returned in thefall found a job on campus at the law library.  Later in the semester I heard rumors that one of the junior managers might quit, but I told myself to not get my hopes up because there was still the first alternate and I had "moved on" in a sense. 

Tuesday afternoon the week after fall break (and after we had just lost to USC) I received a text from a friend who had made the 21, saying "Soooooooo word on the street is you might be coming to managing?" It turned out the rumors were true - one of the junior mangers had quit and the first alternate had declined to rejoin the program.  And waiting in my inbox was an email from the head senior student manager asking if I wanted to rejoin the program.  I had to make a decision by 10 am the next morning.  It surprisingly was a hard decision and I barely slept that night, but in the end I decided to say yes.  I showed up at football practice the next day and never looked back. 

It's funny how life works out...