Confessions of a College Slacker: My Biggest Regret

Previously, I asked you guys to send me questions — you came through!  Here’s the fourth in a series in which I talk about the things you want to know!

I’ve had the opportunity to speak at a lot of schools and churches over the last few years, and it seems like every time I do Q&A, someone always asks me what my biggest regret in life has been. So today I thought I’d answer that question for everyone else.

My biggest regret is the way I handled my college years. For those of you who don’t know, I went to Kansas State University on a football scholarship. K-State is a school that has produced a lot of NFL players over the years and like most incoming freshman, I hoped that I might end up in the NFL as well. The only problem with that was, I was the classic case of a kid who didn’t handle his business like a man. Instead of devoting myself to getting better in every workout, drill, and practice, I did just enough to get by. To this day I can’t pinpoint why I handled myself the way I did except to say that I was immature. I wasn’t ready for the full-time job that college football is and I decided to take the easy route which lead to a disappointing career and a lifetime of regret.

Football wasn’t the only thing that I didn’t devote myself to while in school – I also slacked off in class. I was finally living on my own, 500 miles away from home and I didn’t have a parent to tell me to go to class or to study for mid-terms. I was on my own and I quickly realized that the professors don’t know if you’re absent when there’s three or four hundred people in their class. I skipped a lot of class and as a result got a lot of bad grades and missed out on a good education. Again, I’m going to have to chalk that up to being immature.