COLUMN: Sometimes it’s the thought that counts

Sometimes it’s the thought that counts.

No, I’m not talking about failed attempts to be romantic, like the time I accidentally lit my hand on fire while trying to impress my future wife with a candlelit dinner. No, I’m not talking about that annoying speech my soccer coach used to give us when we lost a game – a regular occurrence.

I’m talking about being recognized for a cause I didn’t even know I had enlisted in. When I checked my e-mail Thursday afternoon, I found a message from the USU Student Health and Wellness Center. I was full of anticipation as I opened it because I was hoping it was a message informing me the doctors had finally found a cure to my interminable stomach pains which I’m quite positive are the early stages of stomach cancer. Or maybe I should just stop drinking so much soda.

I was wrong but was still pleasantly surprised to see I had won an award for a contest. I’m pretty sure this is the first award I’ve received since I was in the second grade and I won one of those giant educational posters that hung on the walls of my elementary school. Sadly I was proud of that and displayed it on my bedroom wall for years.

What made this award truly special though was that I hadn’t even entered the contest.

The e-mail said, “Congratulations! You have been selected as one of the USU Student Wellness Center’s Wellness Challenge Winners.” It then proceeded to tell me to pick up my prize at the Student Wellness Center.

I read the e-mail over and over to see if there was some sort of mistake or if this was just a bold attempt by my wife to actually get me off the couch and exercise. But sure enough I had won the Student Wellness Center’s Wellness Challenge.

For those of you not familiar with the Wellness Challenge, it is a program designed to promote a better lifestyle. Last year it was primarily focused on improving the physical health of individuals, but this year it was changed to improve the overall health of individuals in the five different aspects of life: physical, mental/emotional, social, economical and spiritual.

Those who chose to participate in this challenge were to submit a goal each week to work on in whatever aspect the individual chose.

Now, I’ll be honest, I never entered this contest, although I feel I met the requirements. Each week I set new goals for myself which I seem to promptly break the next day. For instance, one week I made a goal to get up a half hour earlier than usual and exercise for that half hour. I was excited for it and my body was thinking, “All right. This lazy punk will actually get up and get some energy in these shrinking muscles.”

Unfortunately, that’s about as far as the goal got. When I woke up the next morning to that annoying country music that plays on my alarm clock – I have to use country music so it motivates me to get up and turn the alarm off – I had no desire to exercise, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t intentionally exercise once that week.

On another occasion I promised myself I would jump rope at least 10 minutes each day. I did well at this for a while and was even starting to get down the criss-cross, when my wife told me when I jumped it sounded like a herd of elephants moving across our balcony. Once again my desire to exercise was shot.

So I went to little goals like the remote control Olympics. This game is intense. You grab a timer and a remote and then see how long it takes to flip through all the channels on television. I felt pretty good about my record of 35.2 seconds, that is until my wife went off and beat me with a time of 27 seconds. Beginner’s luck.

In reality I feel I did meet the goals of this Wellness Challenge, which I consider a great program. We live in a heavily obese society that is largely that way because of laziness and unhealthy lifestyles. The Wellness Challenge is all about doing what is best for your body and overall health.

That has also been the purpose of this column. The idea for Mr. Un-Athletic came from one of my friends, coincidentally named Seth, who had this concept of trying out various sports to see how difficult each sport really is and to show that physical activity is a good thing. Since he didn’t feel up to writing a column each week, he told me to take on the task – something I did with a bit of trepidation.

It hasn’t always been easy to do some of the Mr. Un-Athletic challenges. Some were downright painful, like the time I had to squeeze into a tiny Speedo and learn how to play water polo with the women’s water polo team, or the time I had to contort my body into all sorts of painful positions to learn yoga. And then there’s the time I made a fool of myself in front of the entire women’s soccer team as I learned how to flip throw a soccer ball.

I also explored sports I’ve never tried before, like when I became a hooker. No, I didn’t stand on a street corner wearing mascara and a hot red skirt. I tried being a hooker on the rugby team. Had I never tried this out, I would not have the love for rugby that I do now. I tried out parkour, a sport that is challenging but entertaining. I even nearly passed out as I tried to do the Tour de Campus bike race.

Throughout all these activities, my goal has been to show that even though I am not an athlete, like most of you out there, I can still participate in a variety of sports and have fun doing it. Trying these sports allowed me to drop any inhibitions about my body or lack of athletic talent and enjoy the sport for what it’s meant for: fun.

So even though I didn’t enter the challenge, I have still participated in everything it stands for, and I hope I entertained the five people who have actually read this column for the past year.

Maybe I’m not the best athlete in the world, but at least the Student Wellness Center recognizes the idea that it’s the thought that counts.

Seth Hawkins is a junior majoring in public relations. His goal for this week is to play Super Nintendo without eating ice cream at the same time. Comments and questions can be sent to him at sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu