The freedom to pursue one's dreams and imperative, pressing desires is a most valuable liberty that many citizens of this great country take for granted. Do any of us really consider the infinite, incomprehensible and habitual struggles that have gone on every single day since the independence and subsequent inception of the United States of America?
The struggles must go on, according to the very maxims that define our way of life. Otherwise we will cease to exist, and go into oblivion for not following our civil and biological natures. It is our right and duty to say what we want and think the way we want to think in virtue of being human beings, with the ability to think independently and our gift of free will.
The very conception of a United States seemed impossible only a decade and a half before independence was declared. But the declaration was only a formality -- a statement of a way of life and views that had been going on for decades via independent economic ventures, independent political structures and a way of life far different from the "mother country" an entire ocean away.
Less than an ocean away from the Hanover Plain, the Dartmouth men's tennis team took on less worthy foes than England during the zenith of her empire, in the first head-to-head action of the year at the ECACs.
Demonstrating their collective abilities to have free will, the men's racketeers embarked on an athletic endeavor of epic proportions. Like the ins and outs of living in civil society, with open forums for discussion of necessary the undertakings of this country, the team endeavor an on-going process -- the pursuit of success and maybe even an Ivy League title in the spring.
As an excited group of Big Green tennis players gathered early Friday morning before their first dual match of the season, certainly in great anticipation for things to come, the supernatural factor demonstrated who the governor of the universe is by galvanizing all Earthly forces together for an awe-striking rainstorm. Unfortunately for the Green, the rain and resultant delay seemed to have flattened their spirits and bodies for the match against Columbia, formally Kings College a few centuries ago.
Upon the move indoors to the National Tennis Center, play began with the doubles action. Although the top, all-junior team of Neal Bobba and Drew Dinkmeyer cruised through its match to an easy 8-5 win amidst a flurry of rhythmic net play and well-placed serves and service returns, the other two teams could not put away the opposition, despite leads of 6-3 in the super-set format.
Momentum from the doubles carried over to singles play, as Bobba and Dinkmeyer dropped a pair of tough matches at the top two spots respectively, with Dinkmeyer losing 6-3 in the third.
Junior Borko Kereshi's straight-set victory at the fourth slot was not enough to hold off the Columbian arsenal, as his teammate Jesse Paer '04 could not find his rhythm at third, thus suspending the other two matches.
Although slightly dejected, the players remained optimistic about the rest of the weekend and year, as Bobba remarked, "Our loss to Columbia could have been turned around had we won the doubles point But it was our first dual match of the year, and hopefully we will take away an expensive lesson from it."
Saturday brought a plethora of possibilities for the Green. However, the team decided to go with the possibility that would bring its first team win of the season, so only one possibility actually existed from the team's perspective.
The win, at the expense of St. Bonaventure, represented the elasticity, strength and resiliency of the team. Dartmouth jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point, with comfortable wins at second by Paer and Kereshi and third by Raj Shrestha '06 and Priya Sahu '05.
Singles action followed much of the same pattern, with wins by Bobba at one, Kereshi at three, David Webb '05 at four, Andres Reyes '05 at five and Shrestha at six. The 6-1 victory, which featured dynamic play, countless crisp winners and superb sportsmanship, evened the team record at 1-1 on the year.
The racketeers were not done yet, as the taste of first blood wetted the collective team's pallet. To the misfortune of Colgate, the Raiders were up against a relentless, ravenous bunch from Dartmouth. However, it took a little while for the Green to demonstrate their animal instincts on the court, as Colgate opened out of the gate by taking the doubles point with wins at one and three.
When weighing an area that let Dartmouth down over the weekend, Bobba said, "Our doubles was definitely disappointing from a team perspective over the course of the weekend as we should have won all three points and only managed to come away with one."
Dartmouth would not be denied victory with play moving to singles, as youth and depth carried the team through. At the first position, Bobba "ran up against a player on fire who made few errors and capitalized on his sizzling forehand," according to head coach Chuck Kinyon, as Bobba lost in a pair of closely contested sets.
Dinkmeyer, also according to Kinyon, "was able to take his serve and volley game up a notch to control his match" in a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win.
The depth of the team was portrayed with straight set triumphs by Webb and Reyes at the fourth and fifth spots. The stage was set for the Green to take the match with a win at the six spot, and Shrestha came through in the clutch, giving his new team the 4-3 edge with his 6-4, 7-5 conquest.
Moreover, the players demonstrated the pride and glory they take in existing in a civil state that grants them the liberty to chose a certain course of action, such as an athletic endeavor, in accordance with deep-filled desires and human nature.
If our country did not allow its citizens this virtue, where would we be? Would you be allowed to read sports articles, or would writers be censored on what they submit? The human mind would be constricted in its natural creative impulses and ability to view itself as an entity independent of like beings.
We would be robots, plugging away as part of a mechanical system, not intelligently operating the machines, but becoming sucked into and part of the machines. Everyone should take comfort in the fact that we are given the freedom to see ourselves outside the machines, as we can all travel to places mentally and physically that make our collective human minds grind not only individually, but collectively.
It is this collective-individual mind-grind that drives us and makes our country such a beautiful place where citizens interact naturally, feeding off one another, as part of an extremely creative, symbiotic whole.
