Week 13: A Week of Sports, Giving Back, and Thanksgiving Festivities
“The best part of life is not just the big moments, but the small ones spent with good friends and family.” – Unknown
By: Hong Bing Tang December 2nd, 2024
11/18/2024 to 11/24/2024
Introduction:
Hey everyone! I hope you all have a last two couple of weeks and some quality time with some family if you celebrate thanksgiving! I myself had a good last 2 weeks. With thanksgiving coming up and only classes the week of thanksgiving, I got unmotivated to do work and hence did not post. So, I hope you like 2 posts this week! Let’s diving into the week before thanksgiving.
School:
With projects for the 2 of my classes and only week of class after thanksgiving, this was the last week of content for 3 of my classes. So it was time to lock in and focus up and get prepared for the exams. As a result, I paid extra attention in these classes since most of the time the content learned at the end of the year is normally the hardest topics in class. This was true as we learned some harder analysis of Op-Amps, Transmission lines, and Memory interfacing. Overall, it was not too bad of a week and I am ready to start getting ready for exams!
SAAC Events:
On the Monday our SAAC e-board counted all the cans we had collected as the athletic department. We were hosting our 3rd annual canned food drive against Western Michigan university and it ended on Monday. So all six of us counted the cans and it took a while because we had a lot of items. So in total from our athletic department we had 1938 food items. In addition to the outside of athletics we had a total amount of 2200 cans and over 1750 lbs of food. With the effort of everyone we were able to beat westerns 1450 lbs of the total food items which in turn was our 2nd year of winning. I am looking forward to seeing Western’s punishment which is having their own SAAC having to sing out theme song.
We also had another SAAC event as well. On Wednesday we had a Friendsgiving for our SAAC members. Each member brought a different dish to share and we hosted the dinner during the men’s basketball game. We were able to sit in the upper VIP lounge which was really awesome being able to watch the game from a super good view. It was a huge success since the turnout, food, and event environment was amazing. Additionally it was even more special since the new president came to talk to us and I was individually able to speak and learn about his experience in education which was super amazing. Finally the best thing of course was that our basketball team won! Overall it was a great event and hopefully next year we can do it again and have even more people come!
Rivalry Game!
This week was full of sports and the big event of the week everyone was looking forward to being the semi-annual rivalry home football game against Western Michigan. 2 years ago, the Western game was legendary since it was a snowy game, and we lost only by a game winning field goal late in the game. So, the energy to beat WMU was high on Tuesday. Most of the guys teams went to the game, and we were pumped. Our team got a 13-0 lead against the Broncos at half time, but in the second half our offense was not playing the greatest and threw an interception, and the game was nerve wrecking. However, after a couple key plays from our running backs, and false excitement from a pick-six but that was called due to a penalty we were able to hold off the Broncos and win at home against them for the first time since 2010. Overall, for being the first game that I stayed until the end fully this year, it was well worth it.
Basketball:
Of course, with the guys being off this week they had to play some basketball this week. So, on Thursday I shot around the ball while they all played. It was a small group of people, and I watched them play. Honestly, the teams were fair this time and made it fun and competitive. Additionally, we also went to go play on Saturday at McGuirk Arena. Unfortunately, they were setting up for the women’s basketball game, so we were kicked off after only playing for 20 minutes. So, we moved to one of the practice courts at are still very nice and they played some elimination basketball where if you got scored you got subbed in by the extra person. It was fun and the last week of basketball was nice to watch but I am looking forward to being able to play with the guys since I am not racing.
Diabetes Walk:
In the early afternoon on Sunday, I was able to attend the third annual diabetes awareness walk. I was looking forward to the walk since it was an event hosted by Caleb, my RA from last year, for the past 2 years. And although he was not directing the event this year since he is out of college, he came back to lead the walk which was super awesome. The walk was a 2k loop and was good to support Caleb and raise diabetes awareness. Additionally, after the walk we were fed some food as well, which was super awesome to get to eat with most of the team! Overall, it was a great event run by the Res-Halls of Celani and Fabiano.
Tracksgiving:
The last event of the week was the annual tracksgiving and special event this year hosted by the Steven Porter. We first started off by playing Steven’s game called Guess the link. It is almost like the NY times connections with a twist. In this game Steve gives us three images and a theme, and we must guess the link between the three different pictures related to the theme. We played this game during cross country camp however the track team joined us this time. Since I had already played this game before I knew what to expect and it was a lot easier this time around than last time. Overall, it was fun, and we did well as a team and tied for third.
After the game we all headed to the track to have our thanksgiving dinner. There was a wide variety of traditional Thanksgiving food and good soup made by the coaches. Additionally, there were so many desserts as well and I stuffed myself with a ton of food! After eating some amazing food, the guys decided it would be a good idea to wrestle with each other. Carson and Ethan went at it and honestly it was a very fair fight with neither of them really winning. It was surprising someone did not yack since we all ate a lot of food. It was a great time!
Conclusion:
This week was filled with exciting events, from competing in a fierce rivalry football game to giving back through community events like the canned food drive and diabetes awareness walk. As Thanksgiving approached, I got to enjoy quality time with friends and teammates, topped off with delicious food and fun games.
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