By Charles Jardine
Sports Editor
As we approach the end of another academic year, we run through the same feelings of having too much to do in not enough time. We look at our grades and figure out how to do the least amount of work while still maintaining the letter grade we desire. It’s often at the end of each semester that we have this mentality of trying to survive, but what was all the work during the rest of the semester for, just to throw it all out the window in the last couple of weeks?
In sports, there’s a saying “it’s not how you start it’s how you finish”. Tom Brady’s Patriots, arguably the most successful team in football history, was not always known for their play in the first quarter but was lethal in the third and fourth quarter.
In Superbowl LI, the Atlanta Falcons led the Patriots 28-3 in the third quarter. Brady and his team remained calm cool and collected then went on to play some of the most masterful football over the next two quarters to win the Superbowl 34.28.
Brady also holds the record for the most game-winning drives at 58.
Likewise, the Golden State Warriors during the 2014-2019 stretch went to the NBA finals every year winning three out of the five. They were known for being a third-quarter team outscoring their opponents by an average of 20 points in the regular season and by 10 points in the playoffs during the 2015-2016 season.
Though each team did not win every single game, they did not give up at the end. They built strong foundations leading up to the time that matters, and with that foundation used it to achieve a great amount of success.
The last couple weeks of the semester is our version of the playoffs. Maybe we are that number one seed who has spent the last 12 weeks reading, studying and giving our studies their due diligence, or maybe we are the wildcard team. Maybe we haven’t given our classes the attention and now need to be the underdog team.
No matter what your academic situation may be looking like this is not the time to let up. As we are in the Easter season, it is a season of celebration. It is a season of celebrating the person we have become through lent, and not a time to be ruined by our academics.
I encourage all of us to take this to heart and remember that we are called to be great. Do not forget the mission that the Lord has set forth for you and finish this year strong!