Transferring
Just before the end of my first semester I told my coach that I wanted to leave, and then the whole transferring mess began. With my coach not wanting me to leave, I didn’t officially get a ‘release or permission to speak to other coaches’ so that way, I had the option of staying if I didn’t find anywhere else to play. Anyhow, that made it quite difficult to start the transfer process off. Every time I wanted to speak to a coach from another school, I would have to submit a request to the athletic director who would then have to approve it for me to begin to talk, which really just slowed the whole process down.
When deciding on transferring, I had three simple criteria in choosing my next school: it had to be a big school or in the city, it had to have a good football program, and I had to get the same or better scholarship. Oh, and it had to be a good school academically. So, along came Queens, a school that ticked all the boxes, in the heart of Charlotte, nationally ranked at the time, good scholarship, and a great academic school, it didn’t take much to persuade me. A short weekend recruiting trip opened my eyes to what more America had to offer me.
Take 2
I arrive to Charlotte early August in the blazing heat, excited for my sophomore season and a semester in the city. Unfortunately, the football didn’t pan out the way I expected, and it ended up being one of the worst teams I had ever played for. Aside from Queens having every single resource you can think of, everything else about the football itself was in shambles. Luckily, having transferred for reasons outside of football, the semester turned out to be one I’ll never forget, being able to go out in the city, meet a ton of great people outside of football as well as in the team, gave me back that feeling of being a normal uni student and making the most out of the experiences one should experience while at uni.
I need to work – Let the bullshit begin
Having a decent scholarship still didn’t cover all my living expenses, meaning I needed to work. PLUS, the fact that Queens charges you to breathe on that campus, makes constant mistakes regarding financial aid and scholarship money, then points the finger at every other rock before finding a solution to fixing the problem, just added to the stress of having money in the back of your mind constantly.
As someone who has battled winters upon winters in the English weather posting newspapers through doors, you can pretty much do anything to earn a bit of cash. However, America MAKES IT SO DAMN HARD. Here are the rules, you can only work on campus (excluding internships), you can only work a maximum of 20 hours a week, before applying for a social security card you must first find a job, have the employer and international office write a letter acknowledging it, and then stand in U.S. government offices for hours on end. When you’ve done all that, congratulations you have the wide selection of 4 campus dining options to choose from, which pay a fantastic minimum wage.
What makes it more frustrating is that there are an abundance of part-time openings in Charlotte, in retail, bars…you name it. All with a lot more earning potential that you’re never allowed to touch. Never the less, I settled for a position as burger flipper/fry dropper in the Lion’s Den, working 26 hours a week just to make some decent cash to enjoy myself. (After a year they caught on to the extra hours and I had to go back down to 20)
Read part 1 here
- Ryan Ejezie