Mitchell's Power Play

College

MITCHELL

I met Nash for the first time freshman year of college. He'd been assigned as my roommate and little did I know that it was the beginning of the most important relationship in my life... at least so far. At that time, the college paired athletes with each other, and usually, students from the same sport shared a dorm. We, as part of the hockey team, and most of the other athletes, moved into the dorms a week ahead of everyone else. The campus was busy but nothing compared to what it was when the rest of the students arrived on the regular move-in day a week later.

Nash's loud laughter could usually be heard down the hall and move-in day for us was no different. I'll never forget the first time I walked into that dorm. I'd been on the road for hours, driving myself to school in my old beat-up Chevy pickup truck. My nerves were shot and I was stressing big time even though I tried to play it off like I was as calm as anything. Like going off to college on my own was something I did every day. I mean even if I didn't want to do it on my own, it wasn't like anyone in my family wanted to help. Hell, they didn't understand or even approve of me going to college, or care about my dream to make it to the UAHL.

Normal parents were proud that their children went off to college, and shared in the excitement on move-in day. It was usually a big deal that was celebrated. And in Michigan, being good at hockey and getting a full ride to University of Michigan because of it, was a big deal. Just not in my house.

"Trying to be something your not. Thinking you are too good for us," was my dad's constant comments. He was a blue-collar worker and always had been. When I was little he'd owned his plumbing service but the business fell apart after my mom left, and so did our lives. Nothing was ever the same after that. I learned pretty quickly, and not the easy way, that it was better to just ignore the hurtful words than to question them.

"Hey man," the guy who I now know was Nash, greeted me as I peeked around the corner into the open room. He stood in the middle of the floor of the small dorm room with a middle-aged couple behind him. The man looked so much like him that they had to be father and son.

I cleared my throat after having been quiet all day and responded with a cool "hey."

"Are you Mitchell?" he asked as he looked me over. I did the same to him, taking in his smiling face, the green eyes, dark hair, athletic body, recognizing we were about the same size so when I fully entered the room our eyes were at the same level.

It was just something about him that instantly made me feel comfortable. He had that carefree, relaxed, all-inclusive attitude that came from stability and knowing yourself. I really hoped that I'd be able to accomplish that one day.

"Yes. Are you Nash?"

"I am," he responded with his now-famous smirk. "These are my parents, Liz and Howard," he continued and gestured to the couple behind him.

I shook their hands formally after placing my large duffle bag on the warn gray linoleum floor.

"Are your parents downstairs?" Mrs. Reed asked me. I caught her glancing out into the hallway as she expected my parents to appear with their arms full of my stuff as normal parents would.

Even though I knew that question would come up and I had practiced an answer over and over during the five-hour car ride, it still caught me off guard. But the reality was that nobody cared enough to come with me. How freaking sad was that? Not that I wasn't used to it because I was. I had learned to do everything on my own, but still... who goes to move into college by themselves? Actually, that's not true. My high school hockey coach had offered to go with me under the excuse that he'd like to check out the facility and talk to the coaching staff, but I knew he just felt bad for me, and if it was one thing I didn't want it was pity. I'd managed to take care of myself this far, and I would manage college too, so I'd told him I wanted to do it on my own.