Eastern Editor’s Note
Hearing the Cheers I
like facing adversity, working together for a common goal, and never giving up.” I even tossed in a family favorite: “Failure helps build
character.” She was not persuaded. “It’s too bad someone has to feel bad,” she said. Clearly no one was going to win this argument. Growing up, I never really had an “everyone gets a trophy”
mentality. I believed that you either won or you lost. Tere was no middle ground. I’d like to say that I witnessed the joy of children on the third-place tee ball team wearing medals and that changed my opinion, but that would be a lie. Te truth always had a hard edge of dichotomy. Life has soſtened my stance, though, and I can now appreciate passing around the praise.
A few years ago I entered a 5-mile trail race. When the starting gun sounded, I knew I couldn’t win. I just wanted to do the best that I could and challenge myself physically and mentally. I came in next to last out of the entire field, and it took a mad sprint near the finish line to
avoid being dead last. I was exhausted. Humbled. Embarrassed. Te strangest thing happened as I neared the finish line, though. I heard cheering. Aſter the
race, random spectators kept coming up and congratulating me, and a race organizer handed me a finisher’s medal. In the racing community, it’s accepted that only one person can actually win—and that everyone who finishes is also deserving of recognition. Te cheers felt good, and I immediately placed the medal around my neck. Why am I telling you this? Because we recently learned that Eastern magazine won a
CASE V Gold Award for Most Improved Alumni/Institution magazine (among schools with enrollment of 10,000 and up). CASE is our national organization, and region V includes colleges and universities in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. We didn’t set out to win this award, and a contest is the last thing on our minds while puting an issue together. Still, it was nice to earn recognition from our regional peers. And I couldn’t help thinking that maybe “hockey lady” was onto something. Not everything is about winning, and there isn’t always a loser. Sometimes the sense of accomplishment and growth is just as valid, whether it comes with a medal or not. Now you can help us grow and improve even more. We’ll soon be doing a readership
survey, and your responses will shape and guide future issues. Randomly selected participants will receive postcards in the mail with more instructions. Until then, we hope to keep earning your applause. —DG
4 Eastern | WINTER 2011
Winter 2011 Vol. 8, Issue 2
EDITOR Darcy Gifford ART DIRECTOR
Mike Andaloro (BFA75) CONTRIBUTORS
was at a minor league hockey game about 15 years ago when a woman seated next to me— someone I had never met—casually said, “I hate sports, because someone has to lose.” Now, I’m not a big debater, and I’m not always great at conversing with strangers. I am a
former collegiate athlete, though, so a rebutal was too tempting to let pass. “Life’s not fair,” I said, followed by such gems as: “Not everyone who interviews for a job actually gets the job.” “Only one person wins a spelling bee, you know.” “You can play a game and lose but still learn a lot of lessons,
Chris Azzopardi (BS06), Rhonda DeLong (MS08), John Harte, Stacy Innerst, Cara Jones,
Randy Mascharka (BBA85), Dan Mathis (BA07), Jo Mathis, Nancy Mida (BS72), Jeff Mortimer, Ward Mullens, Doug Plummer, Ron Podell,
Jeff Samoray, Leah Shutes, Robert Snow, Alan Warren, Ellen Weaver, Amy Whitesall
ABOUT EASTERN Eastern (ISSN 2150-4679) is published three
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The views presented are not necessarily those of the editor or the official policies of the University.
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