I'm a nostalgic person. Really, it's sometimes bad. I find myself at times not enjoying the present as much as I could be because I'm instead thinking of the past. I know I can't stop time or go back, but sometimes I wish I could.
I'm also a sports lover. I am a huge fan of college basketball (anyone who knows me well knows I'm a pain to watch it with because I won't shut up), I am forever cursed as a Mets fan and Sundays in November are good for three things: schoolwork, church and football.
Super Bowl Sunday is a beautiful marriage of these two things that help embody who I am. Now, at age 20, it's a time to gather around a television with some good friends, have some chips and salsa, be commercial critics and perhaps make a wager or two during the course of the game. Last year, it was a time to share in the elation of the two biggest Packers fans I know. So far this year, it's been a time to watch with amusement as my boyfriend and our friend argue the merit of the Giants even making it as far as the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl is also a time that makes me remember. I remember the parties my parents used to host, when all their friends from Brooklyn used to drive down to our home in Jersey. The men would all have beers and watch the game. The women would sit around the kitchen table and catch up on life. We kids would tear around the basement and play music and invent games because we were too young to care about football.
I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing the last time the Giants and the Patriots met in the Super Bowl. For the first half, I was on the second floor of my house, banging out a history paper in our office with the game on in the background. For the second half, I was in our family room, eating mini hot dogs, wishing my dad weren't away on business as I watched David Tyree catch a ball with his helmet.
At the moment, it's nice to have a major sporting event to take my mind off things, if only for a day. College epitomizes time and uncertainty. We are forever moving forward, looking on to what's next — what's going on next weekend, what are we doing next summer, what's going to happen after we graduate. Sports are timeless and operate with a reasonable amount of certainty. Major League Baseball will start again in April, the World Cup comes every four years, the Super Bowl will be played on Sunday.
The memories they create are forever burned into our minds and help us stop, or at least hold on to, time. Hopefully everyone on campus, whether they're rooting for the Giants, Patriots or are simply hoping to see a good game, takes advantage of this event to forget papers, forget tests and stop time for a few hours.
Contact Laura Coletti at wcarey@nd.edu
The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
