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#HappyHour, #TerpNation, #YeahBand, Baltimore, BaltimoreRavens, Bentleys, bowling, College Park, DC, Fountain Runs, hockey, Looneys, Maryland, Maryland Sports Marketing, McKeldinMall, MD, MLS, New Jersey, NHL, NJ, Ravens, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Rutgers, Scarlet Knights, Scott Van Pelt, SGHLA, tennis, Terps, Terrapins, Testudo, The Mall, Tim Kurkjian, UMD, Washington, WeddingCrashers
Why Maryland?
I’ve been asked this question so many times since I made the decision to leave my home state and attend the University of Maryland to obtain my undergraduate degree.
[Yes, my middle name is Matthew]
Why Maryland? “Why not Rutgers? It’s right here in New Jersey.” “Why not Penn State? They have one of the largest alumni networks in the world.” “Why not Delaware? Didn’t you get into their honors program?”
In 2009, I was senior at Fair Lawn High School. I was the captain of the bowling team and a starter on the varsity tennis team.
I was a member of the National Honor Society, Hispanic Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America, Global Warming Awareness Club, etc. I was a busy “kid.” I played pickup hockey almost every day I didn’t have bowling or tennis.
Along with a couple of my best friends, we founded the SGHLA — the “Steven Geltzer Hockey League of America.”
We had our own “made-up” league. Our final project for our AP Calculus class was even a video relating our hockey games to calculus.
CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE THE TRAILER TO THE VIDEO.
So, why Maryland? Why leave my friends, sports, my hometown community?… the list of reasons I could have stayed close to home for school goes on and on and on. But I chose not to. I chose to go to Maryland. And I don’t regret it for one second.
I’m happy to be back in New Jersey. I want to work in New York City. I want to enjoy being young, working in one of the greatest cities in the world, living in close proximity to some of my best lifelong friends.
Why Maryland? Now, here’s my opportunity to transform this over into a Buzzfeed-like post. Here’s a couple reasons (in no particular order) why the University of Maryland was an awesome experience for me:
1) I got to get away from home.
I had the opportunity to go to school up to 4 hours away from my hometown of Fair Lawn, NJ. I went to school exactly 4 hours away according to my GPS.
2. Greivis Vasquez.
No, I was not a Maryland fan prior to first moving into Cumberland Hall in August of 2009. In case you were unaware, I used to root for the North Carolina Tar Heels in college basketball… That obviously became unacceptable. I only liked them because my favorite basketball player of all-time, Vince Carter, went to UNC. I was now a Terp… so naturally I just decided to worship Greivis Vasquez.
3. Ravens fans.
Love them or hate them, they exist. And at the University of Maryland, a 30-45 minute drive from Baltimore, there were more than enough Ravens fans. I happened to live with this one –
4. Proximity to DC and Baltimore.
The idea of going to a school close to 2 big cities was intriguing to me… intriguing in that I took every opportunity to see the Yankees play in Baltimore at Camden Yards and see the Devils play in DC at Verizon Center.
5. Party School.
Every high school student, whether they choose to admit it or not, dreams of going a school with the “best parties” and/or the “best bar scene.” Maryland definitely had a good mix of the two.
6. Looney’s.
I’ll summarize number 6 with a couple very fitting hashtags:
- #YeahBand
- #YeahBanks
- #RumAndRums
- #HappyHour
- #90sNight
- 3AM
7. “Crabcakes and football. That’s what Maryland does.”
Thanks, Wedding Crashers… I don’t even eat shellfish.
8. Testudo.
What other school gets to have an awesome turtle as a mascot?
9. The Mall.
McKeldin Mall is the largest academic mall in the United States. Pretty cool.
10. Fountain runs.
Yup, that’s right. I did multiple “fountain runs” in my final week as a student in College Park. In case you need some sort of explanation, you basically just run/walk your way through the fountain [pictured above] in the center of the mall.
11. The Delaware Memorial Bridge.
There’s nothing like driving over the Delaware Memorial Bridge commuting to/from College Park.
12. Academics.
I took some classes, took some exams, did some presentations and was handed a degree. Pretty sweet deal.
13. Internships.
I’m still not 100% sure how, and it may or may not have been directly correlated to my education at the University of Maryland, but I had the opportunity to intern for:
I’ll take it.
14. Scott Van Pelt and Tim Kurkjian.
These 2 ESPN employees graduated from the University of Maryland. They’re awesome. I can also do a pretty decent impersonation of Tim Kurkjian, if you’re interested.
15. Robert H. Smith School of Business.
I knew what I was getting into. Succeeding in a tough public business school was not going to be easy. It was definitely the toughest school I applied to. Although getting in was satisfying, I’d say graduating and finding a job pretty much right after college (internship at MLS followed by a sales position at SinglePlatform) was worth it in the long-run.
16. I was the only person from my HS graduating class to commit to Maryland.
You gotta be different, right? I guess I could have ended up at Rutgers with a number of people from my high school graduating class of 391 students. Instead, I decided to move away for four years to a place I didn’t know much about. The toughest part was getting myself to root against Rutgers Football… Growing up watching Ray Rice, Brian Leonard, Mike Teel, Kenny Britt, Tiquan Underwood, San San Te, etc. playing for the Scarlet Knights was a treat.
Transitioning over to become a fan of Stefon Diggs wasn’t too bad, though.
17. @epass17
Whether it’s relevant or not, number 17 brings me to a perfect time to advertise my Twitter account to whoever is actually reading this. So follow me at: @epass17.
18. Jews.
18 in Hebrew is Chai. Chai signifies life. Currently, i’m living and typing this blog and happened to arrive at number 18. Good time to bring that up, right? Or maybe my point here is that there are a lot of Jews at Maryland. Who knows.
19. Hockey.
Uhh Maryland doesn’t have a hockey team, right???
Wrong. I didn’t even realize there was a Terps hockey team until my junior year. Actually, there are two teams – a Division II Club Team and a Division III Club Team. Now that Maryland has switched from the ACC to the Big 10 Conference, maybe there will be a varsity team in the future?
Realizing there was a hockey team at my school when I was 75% of the way through my academic career there was honestly pretty disappointing. I knew at that point that I had to become involved and became a manager for the D2 team my senior year. The team went on to make Nationals… obviously because I was the DJ and PA announcer at all the home games.
20. N/A
So at this point, there wasn’t really another explanation to answer the question: “Why Maryland?” It just sort of happened. I made a decision, stuck with it and never looked back.
Here we go Terps! #TerpNation
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