Nov. 22, 2008

Hi everyone,

        First off, I would like to thank everyone who takes time out of his or her day to read this. This week in my life has been rather eventful and quite out of the ordinary. Monday was our day off this week due to our competition on Sunday.  But, since I couldn't wrestle I got a one-on-one with Coach Joe Johnston. I have really appreciated all of the time coach Johnston has put into helping me adapt my style of wresting to the collegiate level.  Joe and I had two individual practices this week.  I really enjoy these because I get a little more attention than in the regular team practices and I'm able to slow down and work on things when necessary which is a little hard to do in a structured team practice. The rest of the week was the same schedule pushed back a day; this caused a little problem for myself and some others on our team due our 8 a.m. classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We had to make up our morning lifts later in the day.

        I think it's easy to say that I'm a little bit more than excited to compete again this weekend (first time since my accident) in the Missouri Open and I'm equally excited for the Wrestling Supports Wrestling dual. I can't wait to see the Hernes Center sold out with 5,000 screaming TigerStyle wrestling fans.  My parents are even coming into town for these two events; I haven't seen them since they unpacked me here in August. Hopefully they'll bring lots of goodies for after weighins.

        Life as a freshman has become a little more routine now although this week, I have found myself making some of those “little kid mistakes” that I thought I grew out of. The biggest problem is organization.  If any future college wrestlers are reading this, I can't stress it enough.  Organization has been my Achilles heel ever since I've been here. This week alone, I have locked myself out of my room twice (once was my roommates fault for locking me out while in the shower). Last night I did it again I stepped across the hall to say hey to some friends of mine and didn't remember to put my key in my wallet and ended up having to spend the night on their futon. This morning, while studying with two football players for our PRT test today, due to my poor organizational skills, I forgot the other study guide I made that had some key information we needed for the test.  The best case happened right before our test today, we stop by Chipotle to get a little lunch before the test (never a good idea to test on an empty stomach) and instead of putting my debit card back in my wallet, I just fold it in the receipt and put in my bag. After the test as I'm walking by the trash can I empty my pockets like I always due and sure enough I throw away my debit card. I realize this as soon as I get back to my room run back but couldn't find my card anywhere.

        Hope everyone enjoyed a little humor in this weeks blog on account of a few of my “freshman mistakes” and I hope to see everyone out this weekend for the dual and Missouri Open. Mike should have full details of this weekend's events and results on his Monday post.

Nicky Gregoris