A maroon apron awaits patrons of East Tennessee State University's third floor cafeteria, The Marketplace, on a daily basis. An ordinary garment of cloth it is not. Reflecting into the light are small pins resembling basketball jerseys of Buccaneer greats, including Keith 'Mister' Jennings, nods to various performing arts groups, student organizations and logos representing ETSU.
It is exciting when your favorite series of novels turns into a series of movies, and you get to watch everything from your imagination come to life on a big screen. It is even more exciting when you are able to virtually walk around in this world and live the magic that you have learned to love for nearly a decade.
Eat. Pray. Love. Individually, these words represent three actions that each person performs at one time or another as a means of survival or as an attempt to maintain sanity. Put together, those three little verbs form the title of one of the best books I read all summer long.
When I first arrived at ETSU in August of 2008, I was anything but athletic. I was 190 pounds and the idea of taking the stairs up to my fourth floor room at Governors was laughable at best. I took the elevator. A lot. Sports? Walking to my mailbox at my parents' house was enough exercise for me.