6/18/2009
May 06, 2009
Posted by Hiroko Narimatsu on Thursday, June 18, 2009
Almost done! The sun is out (most of the time at least!) and summer is almost upon us. I just got back from an amazing weekend in Colorado where my teammates and I just won the NCAA Division I Independent National Softball Tournament! It was a great feeling to end our season on a winning note and give our graduating seniors a great farewell gift for the last game of their college careers. Every single one of my teammates contributed so much to the team this year and every win was a complete team effort. I can't wait to see what our team can do next year in our full year of Division I competition.
With softball coming to a close, I now have just a little more time to focus on a few other important aspects of my life, including finding another job for the summer, a place to live for next school year, and keeping up with my midterms and school work. Because of softball, my first job that I have lined up for this summer is to be a Mariners Ball-girl! I am so excited to be on the grass of Safeco field, steps away from Ken Griffey Jr. and getting to interact with fans under the bright lights of a major league baseball stadium! Another one of my teammates, Katie Gould, and I got the job earlier this month after a tryout that included fielding actual groundballs on Safeco field along with standard interview questions. It was definitely one of the more interactive and fun job interviews I have ever been too! I am so excited to be spending my summer nights in Seattle cheering on my beloved Mariners!
Along with job and apartment hunting, I still have to keep up with my ever increasingly difficult school work. I am in a Business Ethics course this quarter, along with my standard Diagnostic Ultrasound classes, and it is intriguing but very challenging for me. Since I have never taken a business course, all the business talk of corporations, the capitalist system, taxes and stocks is like a foreign language to me. I might be able to tell you every organ in the human body, but when it comes to finances or econ, I'm like a fish out of water! However, the professor and class are great, and I know that this information will be very useful to me, even in the medical field. That's the great thing about Seattle U, is that you are always able to take diverse and interesting classes, and there are so many to choose from. From theology, to ethics, to philosophy, there is always a class that can spark an interest in someone.
And with that I have to go and do some homework, but thanks for reading, and have a great spring day!!
6/18/2009
April 14, 2009
Posted by Hiroko Narimatsu on Thursday, June 18, 2009
Hey everyone! So it is finally here... .SPRING! After days of rain, grey clouds and even some snow, the sun has finally come out! I just got back inside from a beautiful day today, the sun shining bright while my team played a double header against the College of Idaho and put down two wins in the book! It was a great start to what hopes to be a great last quarter of my Junior year.
Finals week has come and gone, as well as Spring Break. I survived all my classes by pulling a few all nighters and got to play multiple softball games down in Oregon throughout our week off. That's the thing about playing a spring sport, I never get to have the “classic” spring break vacation of sand, surf, and laying out by the pool, because we're always traveling to different tournaments or games. However, none of my teammates and I will ever complain about having a week off to just play our favorite sport with nothing else to worry about, that's how much we all love the game. We ended up having a rough week with a few losses, but have come back and are ready to turn things around for the final stretch of the season.
I feel like this season, more than my first two years here at SU, is even harder when it comes to balancing school and sports. Becoming Division I, all athletes, including myself, feel an increased responsibility to perform at a higher level against better competition, and with the difficult classes I am taking, it challenges me to focus harder just to play up to the standard that I want. Having to remember and understand all of the information in every single one of my diagnostic ultrasound classes, since they all pertain directly to my future career and goals in life, I have to delegate and manage my time and brain capacity in order to keep everything from diseases of the liver to what pitches this pitcher throws in order. It's a challenge, but it's what every student-athlete must do in order to succeed not only in the field, but in the classroom. Every single athlete at SU knows that their athletic talent can only get them so far in life, and that we must excel in our classes in order to go on and do great things once our four years on the field, court, or in the pool come to an end. We are all STUDENTS first, and ATHLETES second, and our GPAs are stressed just as much as our batting averages at SU.
Even though spring is all about softball and ending the academic year strong, I was able to do a few fun things to celebrate my birthday in March. I turned 20 this year, and I celebrated by taking a day trip with my boyfriend Jeff up to Vancouver, British Columbia to just walk around and see all of the pre-Olympic sights getting set up for the 2010 Winter Games. We took the long way up on an Amtrak train, but it was peaceful and relaxing to just sit and watch the gorgeous scenery pass by.
Now it is into the first week of spring quarter and my last classes of the year are beginning. These will be my last real classes of my college career, since my senior year is spent working a full time internship position at a hospital, scanning patients and performing exams for one on one training in the field. I am so excited to finally get out there and begin working and interacting with patients and staff within the hospital.
And with that I need to start work on some homework, but I hope you enjoyed reading!!
6/18/2009
March 17, 2009
Posted by Hiroko Narimatsu on Thursday, June 18, 2009
BUSY BUSY BUSY-that's how I would describe my crazy life right now. We had our first softball tournament down in LA this weekend, midterms have come and gone, papers, quizzes, and tests are piling up, and I'm still trying to squeeze in sleep throughout it all. The crazy life of a student-athlete has begun.
I had to come back to the cold days of Seattle this weekend after a nice sunny weekend in Los Angeles. It was my team's first weekend out, and even though we didn't perform as well as we wanted, we definitely know now that we can compete at the Div I level. We lost three games by only one run and we were competing in every ball game. We played Loyola Marymount, University of Illinois Chicago and Cal State Bakersfield. It was really nice because my parents were able to come down and watch me play, and even though all of us girls missed Valentine's Day, our parents made up for it with goody bags full of candy and stuffed animals. Now we have to get back to the real world that includes homework, papers, and school. How I wish I was back on Venice beach soaking up the sun.
With the beginning of spring sports starting, it also means the end of the winter sports, which have had an AMAZING transition into the Div I level. Both men's and women's basketball team have been undefeated at home and have competed and given so many division I teams a run for their money. It's so exciting to see a sold out Connelly center weekend after weekend, and students and faculty truly supporting Redhawk athletics. Hopefully in our few home games of the season, we can coax a few more fans out to our bleachers to cheer on SU softball.
School work keeps on coming, even if I'm not ready for it. I have tons of lab assignments and papers that I might just have to pull a few all-nighters to finish. I'm getting better at scanning different parts of the body, including the spleen, liver, gallbladder, leg veins and even blood vessels in the brain. It's exciting to start seeing all the different exams I will be doing for the rest of my career.
And with that, I think I need to brew myself a nice big pot of coffee and get started on all this homework in front of me. One all nighter-here we come!