Throughout my Dartmouth career, I've always been defined as a football player. My major has changed, I joined a frat and I've been a member of a couple campus groups. The only constant over my four years here (besides my inability to grow a full beard) is my status as a varsity athlete.
I would never trade my spot on the football team for anything. I'd even turn down a monogamous relationship with Mila Kunis if it meant missing a single moment that I spent with my team here. I've made lifelong friends and grown as a person while proudly playing for the Big Green. But despite my loyalty to the team, I've always wondered what Dartmouth would have been like if I had never played a sport here.
The major difference for me would be the extra amount of free time. In season, I usually spent about 30 hours a week on football-related activities, and that doesn't even include travel time to away games. Off-season, I had to wake up at ungodly hours to lift in Floren and run in Leverone. Basically, I had a full-time job, and I was still expected to keep up with the demanding Dartmouth course load.
If I weren't a football player, I would love to say that I would have used this extra free time to experience parts of Dartmouth that have always fascinated me. I'm naturally lazy, so I'm sure I would have squeezed in a few extra hours of PlayStation and Netflix every week, but also I would have found some new activity to try out. For example, I've never been skiing since I've been at Dartmouth. I've always wanted to go, but I could never find the time. Whenever I thought about going, I always backed out because I was afraid of injuring myself. If you've never been on an athletic team, just believe me when I say that injuring yourself off the playing field is a quick way to get on your coach's bad side.
I'd probably have a lot less scars. Some people might say this is a bad thing, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, scars usually look pretty badass. If people ask about them, I always say I got cut while defending Morgan Freeman in an underground knife fight. On the other hand, scars generally age pretty poorly. I'm sure the skin on my legs will resemble tree bark by the time I'm 50.
I have no idea what my social life would be like. I may or may not have ended up a brother at GDX, and I may or may not have the same friends. It's impossible to answer this question, but I'm positive that it would have been different. The only thing I'm sure about is that I would have spent a lot less money on food. I had to basically eat 4,000 calories a day if I wanted to maintain weight (it's easier to eat this much than you think), and I went over my meal plan every single term.
Who knows what I could have done with all that extra money? Maybe I could have saved enough to finally buy good beer instead of keeping my fridge stocked with Keystone. Wait, it's Keystone. Nothing could have removed that from my Dartmouth experience.
