You Drive What to School?
“God, it’s cold today” is what I would utter daily at seven in the morning as I pulled my golf cart out of the garage.
My name is Max Geiger, and I grew up in Peachtree City, Georgia, and if you know the city, then you most likely know that the town is designed for golf cart access which includes golf cart parking lots at the high schools and paths for over a hundred miles. So, every day during my sophomore year, I drove my friends to school before class started for our weight-lifting program, and I vividly remember when winter time came around. If you’ve ever rode a golf cart or even a go-kart, you know that a good deal of wind will embrace you; this was intense during the winters during the morning ride to school on golf carts. To make things worse, when January rolled around, the locker-room lost all hot water for the showers which only added to the cold mornings. Needless to say, I had about a month-long cold at the time. Still, Georgia winters were nothing compared to where my family came from, which is Pennsylvania, so I have no room to complain (I prefer to say I’m just observing).
Most of my upbringing basically revolved around three things: family, school, and sports. Family came first, and I always tried my best in school to achieve grades that reflected my potential. Sports were fun hobbies to factor into my life aside from family, friends, and school. Ever since I was three years old, my parents had me playing baseball (along with other recreational sports here and there), and I loved it; they always encouraged me to play the sport and helped me get better through practicing with me or driving me to games. Up until high school, I played travel-baseball which was rather exhausting when it came to the number of games we had to play during the school year and summer. Once high school came around, though, I was able to try out for the school team, which was one of my first big life-accomplishments because I never made a team before then. High school baseball was far more fun than travel simply because I played for my school and did not have a far commute to the field since practice was at the school. However, practice was every day of the week after school for the entire second semester, which became demanding when it came to school work. Still, I enjoyed every last minute of my time playing baseball, but I figured that my future would be brighter if I chose to not pursue my interest in the sport after I graduated so that I could focus my time more on studying and getting the best education I could attain.
My second big life-accomplishment was my admission into the University of Georgia. I still remember my mother putting up these oversized sicky-notes on the wall of the dining room that had all the admission information for the colleges that we visited. Two years ago, if I was asked what college I thought I would attend, I probably would have said Tennessee or Auburn. I rarely watched college football growing up, and I paid very little attention to anything involving UGA, even though I had many friends who were fans. Still, UGA’s admission information was soon up on a giant sticky-note in my dining room, which meant I had applied. At the time, I knew that UGA was rather competitive when it came to admissions, so I was somewhat shocked (and relieved) when I was accepted. I knew, however, that I deserved it since I always stayed out of trouble and stuck to my schoolwork (I rarely even watched television). I attribute most of my success to my family for helping and supporting me along the way.
This leads me to the most important factor in my life. I enjoy being around everyone in my family, and I feel that not everyone can truthfully say that sentence. Each member of my family has something different about them that I sincerely appreciate and want to surround myself with which ultimately makes me happier and optimistic. My life would not be what it is today without the hard work my parents devoted to my life. Also, a big influence on my lifestyle came from the basis of this project: my ancestors. They made something of their lives after coming to America from Germany, and each generation that followed them built off the previous success. I hope that I can do the same one day.
