On paper, Ian George is a doomed college student.
Many would think that he is over-involved and over-extending himself on campus. He runs for our Cross Country team. He double majors in chemistry and religion, taking extremely tough classes with high credit loads. He works in a research lab, holds an on campus job, edits for a research journal, and is a Dean's Achievement Scholar at Emory University.
However, Ian meets or excels standard expectations in all these commitments.
"My whole college experience is kind of a balancing act," he said.
How he described this balance between everything he does is also true of life - they work in waves. Some weeks, he'll have a very demanding week of practice while others he'll have three or four midterm exams. Other weeks, he'll have a critical experiment to finish in the lab.
"The key is to plan ahead and know when each of these waves is coming."
In order to maintain this balance - Ian has to communicate effectively with each of his supervisors to accommodate everything. One example is his relationship with our coach, Lance Harden, who has spent two years helping Ian stabilize his college life. This summer, he studied abroad in India and met His Holiness the Dalai Lama. However, his summer training for Cross Country suffered as a result.
"Rather than fighting me on the loss of quality training, he really sat me down and helped me work out how I could best get in runs and enjoy my time there," he said.
But there are times when the balance collapses, as is natural for any human being in the real world. There are weeks, if not months, where he is overwhelmed with both academic and athletic commitments, but he always handles it well regardless.
Since we share a chemistry major, Ian and I have taken many of the same classes, and a common theme is myself doing rather poorly on an exam, and then Ian saying,
"Yeah, I did pretty bad too."
That means he usually got a B+ or A-.
Ian is exceptionally academically gifted - after our freshman year, he applied for the Dean's Achievement Scholarship, a merit scholarship only given to the most successful of continuing students - and he got it.
As much as I can attest to how much of a genius Ian is, I believe that's the boring part of the story. From the outside looking in, it can seem like Ian has floated his way through college so far with little difficulty.
Looking at his career as a runner would prove you wrong.
Like many on our team, he has suffered his fair share of injuries.
"In the past three years, I've suffered IT-band syndrome, patellar tendonitis, two pulled hamstrings, and three sprained ankles," he said.
"He's a grinder," teammate and roommate, Bennett Shaw said. "He puts in true dedication to the classroom and the track."
One time, a small group of us were going on a Monday easy run, but Ian twisted his ankle and sprained it so badly that he could barely walk. The two other guys went back to get help, while I stayed back with Ian to make sure we both got back to campus.
On this chilly November afternoon, we waited hours, but our coach who was trying to pick us up could not find us on the sidewalk. We asked various people at stoplights if we could use their phones, but the lights turned green before we could make the call. Eventually, in a cruel twist of fate, it started raining on the almost-freezing day, and while I could run around and move to warm myself up, Ian could not.
Eventually, our coach finally found us on the sidewalk, but Ian would suffer one of his many sprained ankles that would sideline him for an extended amount of time.
He has spent far too many of his days cross training instead of running as a result. Although he dislikes spending a lot of time on the elliptical or bike, like any normal person would, the support and example of his teammates gets him through it.
"Without the support of teammates and this vision in my head of getting back to running, I would fizzle pretty fast," Ian said. "I always just try to remind myself that an injury isn't forever and I look to people like Shane Sullivan, Max Brown, Phil Edwards, and Grant Murphy for their incredible commitment to the cross training grind."
In addition, he added this:
"I also remind myself there's no use thinking about how it could have been avoided," he said. "That's just a good way to drive yourself crazy. No reason to live in the past."
During his various injuries, Ian has had the support of various people, including the team. Coming into our freshman year, he had a sprained ankle.
"Even though I hardly ever met the majority of the team, they all reached out to me with suggestions on how to train and ensure a quick recovery," he said.
But the person he most credited was Trisha, his girlfriend,
"My personality definitely changes when I can't run," he said. "Whenever I'm really down about it or frustrated with trying to fit in cross training and training room visits, she's always there to cheer me up and remind me why it'll be worth it."
"I really owe a lot of my running success to her," he continued. "She's also the one who really helps me get through all the hard weeks of work when everything hits at once."
This year, our team has seen the introduction of 15 freshmen onto our team, as many as the number of upperclassmen we have. Our team definitely underwent a shift when last year's senior class, the defining part of our culture, graduated.
As such, myself, Ian, and every upperclassman on our team has been thrust into new roles. Since he moved into the Cross Country house, there's especially a new role for him.
"I feel like each of my decisions now holds more weight than it did when I was an underclassman," Ian said. "But I look forward to mentoring any of the incoming runners whenever they need it."
He is also at a standstill in his life - as a junior in college, it's nearly time to decide his career. Through all of college we've both been pre-medical students (like a lot of Emory students), but where that path leads is still to be determined.
"Hopefully I'll find an answer soon," he said.
Overall, Ian is the person that has largely mastered the art of time management and balance in college. To see his accomplishments with all his commitments on paper may lead some to believe he has no social life - but that's very not true.
Just yesterday, we took turns playing Battlefield on another roommate's Xbox (I'm the better player). Some nights, we'll spend an hour or more playing games of Settlers of Catan (of which I'm still better), and he'll end up doing fine. Despite all his commitments, he fully participates in team social events.
Through all of this, he is a model to many of the younger students in how to balance and make the most of every minute - that you can do things you love and still get the job done.
Ian didn't think that he would run in college. After all, it's a time commitment like having a second job.
"My time in college has gone much differently than I would have expected in high school."
But Ian's case was unique - he lost his final season of Cross Country in high school to an IT Band injury. Much of his career has been defined by that injury, but he's with us and kicking as strong as ever.
Ian craves the sense of accomplishment that follows meeting his running goals. One of these goals is to always beat his rival on the team, Tyler Breeden. Ian somehow passes him in the final five seconds of almost every race.
But he is still as passionate as ever about the sport partly because of how much he loves running as a break from everything else he's involved with.
"I tend to keep myself very busy during the year," he said. "So running gives me some time to take a step back and talk to my teammates and think about things."
Part of stepping back and thinking for Ian involves exploring new places, which is invigorating for him.
"I always think back to when I went for a long run at the Cinque Terre in Italy. I ended up being alone on top of a mountain overlooking the sunrise across the five coastal towns," he said. "I'll never forget the feeling of being up there."
Above it all, however, Ian stressed that being on the Cross Country team has been the best part of his college experience so far.
"Regardless of any headaches I've ever had with conflicting commitments, nagging injuries and an overall lack of free time, I wouldn't trade my time with the team for anything," he finished. "It really is a family, and a family I'm proud to be a part of."
