Fall Rowing

7:30 A.M. Harlem River. We wait for the coach’s command to commence. The brisk autumn wind softly stings our faces as our boat gently rocks along the gentle water. The morning sunshine seeps through the trees. It’s the welcoming fall sunshine that warms your face as you start to don your fall apparel. My teammates and I await the coach’s word, eager to begin gliding along the river and to feel the burn of strenuous yet rewarding activity. The coach calls out, “Ready, ROW!” and in a split-second, we’re off.

These small moments occur frequently during rowing practice on the Harlem River, yet often pass by unnoticed. Perhaps because we are all forced to awake at six A.M., we focus very little on these small yet significant instances. Only through reflection do we realize how these small moments help us to appreciate the fall season. Sure, many of the widely known facts about Fordham Rowing are true: we wake up extremely early almost every day to spend three hours practicing and spend many weekends during the fall and spring traveling hours to races. Yes, being a member of the team requires extreme dedication. However, there are so many aspects of rowing that no one can adequately express through words. There are the close friendships that develop from spending so much time around each other. There is the smirk that comes to your face when you realize that you’ve done more by 9 A.M. than what many college students will do all day. With the many hours that rowing takes from you, it gives you the unique time management skills that no other extracurricular activity can teach.

Between rowing and constantly striving to meet the academic expectations of Fordham, being a Fordham rower truly sets someone apart from others. Of course, with all of the commitments that we have to fulfill during our quotidian lives, us rowers don’t always consciously remind ourselves of all of these benefits. We only stop and realize them from time to time. Rowing for Fordham is an incredibly unique experience. Perhaps the next time I stop and bask in the autumn sunshine as we wait to dock our boat after a hard morning’s work, I will stop and appreciate all of the other benefits.