By Ian C. Beck ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy is a place where food must be sheltered from scavenging dogs.
It’s a place where JUGs are not something to be drunk from but rather something to fear, and a place where teenage boys become young men.
Countless times over my four years at Brophy my mother has told me the story of her experience at a “Get Acquainted Party” for freshman parents when she first heard Brophy President Fr. Eddie Reese, S.J. speak.
She tells me how Fr. Reese told the parents in attendance to give him their young boys and he would give them a man.
Although I have heard that story many times, I never really understood just how true it was until I sat down to write this column.
I still remember my first day walking on campus, a timid freshman with little desire or ability to get outside his comfort zone and really grow.
Computer games were enticing, homework was monotonous and studying was a waste of time. Not to mention the Grad at Grad principles and the other mottos thrown around here. Those went right over my head.
Fast forward four years and games still call to me, begging me to play, homework still bogs me down and studying is still a drain. But now I’ve come to realize the meanings of the phrases like “Open to Growth,” “Intellectually Competent” and “Man for Others” that are commonplace on our campus.
As a freshman I didn’t know how important it was to try new things, to open yourself up to different experiences and to get outside the box.
I was immature, I was timid and I was a boy.
Brophy changes all that. It calls its students to get outside their boxes and try new things.
This is no place for people who want to put in the least bit of effort possible and cruise along. Rather, this school is a place for people who want to give their all and genuinely grow physically, intellectually and spiritually.
I’ve found that there is nothing you find inside your comfort zone as rewarding as something out of it.
I never would have joined The Roundup without a desire to try new things, and now I sit three years into my journalism career as a Co-Editor in Chief, having had the opportunity to work with some great men over the years.
I doubt I ever would had led Magis and Kairos retreats or mentored freshmen as a Big Brother or volunteered outside of school without the lessons Brophy taught me about motivating myself to do more and try more.
But this isn’t about me and what I’ve done, it’s a call for action to all my fellow Broncos.
This school is a special place and like Fr. Reese said, it can make you a man, but you have to be open to the changes it can enact in you.
I encourage you all to get outside your comfort zone and if you already are, to stretch yourself just a little more and try even more new things.
The best way to become a Man for Others, to become Intellectually Competent or Open to Growth, moreover, the best way to be a Brophy Bronco, is to get out there and experience as much as you can.
It’s our experiences that shape who we are.
It’s our experiences that make us men.
