Why do we come to university?

So why “do” we come to university? If you ask anyone on the street, they’ll give you more or less the same answer;  to learn of course! So you can start a career and live happily ever after. A student will walk in through the university gates and in 4 or 5 years, he or she will walk out as a graduate. 

But is this all the university has to offer? Simply a machine that produces graduates year after year? University of Moratuwa, in addition to the buildings that houses the different parts of each faculty, has a ground, a lake, green areas and paths crisscrossing all across it.  Of course in our university the green areas tend to “shift” a bit, miraculously disappearing from one place to appear in another place in the space of a day! Anyway these spaces are for us to use and only a few of us really take advantage of it – unless you count the couples huddling in corners out on a romantic date! 

Just imagine yourself in 20 years. Do you have any interesting stories to tell about your university life? Will you say that you slaved for 2 months to study so you can ace that exam? Or how you achieved your First Class? 

Or you can narrate how you and your team went through tough times to achieve a win. Or how you fell out of the boat into the lake. How you ran till your feet became leaden but still didn’t stop. Or how you took a hit to your head and witnessed the birth and death of a whole generation of stars!

When you enter university your batch mates become your family. But someone who does sports in the university will have two families; their batch mates and their teammates. And your teammates will make you push your limits like never before. But they will also catch you when you fall. Simply put – they will not allow you to give up because they will have confidence in you even when you falter. It’s pure madness but you hold on, even when your body screams ‘no’, because you’re doing this for you and your team, because you can almost see the end which you’ve worked for months;  because we do crazy things for family! 

Education stretches the boundaries of your mind. Wouldn’t you like to hone your body the same way you hone your mind? The most widely given excuse for not doing sports in university is “I have no time for that”. But when will you have time? When you’re doing a job or after you’ve retired? Time should be something to be treasured and cherished. It’s not such an impossible task. It has been done. Repeatedly. It’s in your hands to add a little bit more meaning to your time. It is not up to us to decide our fate. What if we run out of time? The best time to start is now. Because this “time”, I guarantee you’ll never get it back. The trick is to live without ever having regrets. 

Another excuse would be the loss of your ivory smooth skin! Yes, it’s a tragedy I know, but hey  it’s alright – you won’t be dark forever! At least you can trade in your fair skin for a toned body! Would you begrudge yourself a treasure trove of memories for your vanity? 

When you do a sport you will push your physical and mental limits to the hilt. Something that you thought impossible today would be something that you’ll achieve tomorrow. Wouldn’t you like to know how far you can run? How much strength is hiding in that body? It doesn’t matter what shape you’re in; you’ll soon be doing things you never thought possible testing your endurance to the limit. How much can you endure till you fall? How will you ever find your limits if you don’t test them? Doing a sport will teach you that it’s okay to fail. Fail a thousand times and you’ll learn a thousand things. But you will win, in the end. Because you know you’ve given it all and you will experience a huge sense of self satisfaction when you get there. Your team will probably strangle you to death at the hour of your victory – but hey love hurts right?

So this is what we at MoraSpirit do. We will be there with you every step of the way (sometimes you may not see us, we employ a small number of invisible ninjas to do reconnaissance!).  But we’re there to offer a helping hand to all those brave people out there who’re willing to fail a thousand times to achieve a shared dream. Who are willing to wake up at crack of dawn, sacrifice their fair and lovely skin, precious time left for blissful sleep,  to stand up and do something amazing. And the next time you fall we’ll also be there to pick you up and to ensure that moment stays in photographic memory forever. Just kidding (not!).

-Sapuni Hettiarachchi-