The Marathon Continues
by Devon Goodman
During the beginning of the school year, when news about COVID-19 started to surface, many people, including myself didn’t think anything of it. To be fair, the first case was miles away in Wuhan, China. I always used to say, “people can never take anything serious on Twitter, especially Black Twitter.” I remember scrolling through my phone and seeing jokes about the virus, even liking a few, oblivious that the virus was about to turn everyone’s life upside down in a matter of months.
I remember the exact moment in the team room when Coach Donahue told us the news that the committee decided to cancel the Ivy League Tournament. That whole day was a rollercoaster of emotions, especially since it was just two days after clinching the last spot in the Ivy League tournament on senior day. The situation was even more complicated because the Ivy League was the first conference to cancel their postseason tournament. My immediate response, similar to the rest of my teammates and fans, was outrage. Although we were the fourth seed in the tournament, we were on a roll at the end of the season and had nothing but confidence that we were heading back to the big dance. For our season to end so abruptly was difficult to accept.
Photo by Son Nguyen
Personally, the Coronavirus pandemic was even more of a burden. It meant the bus rides, trips, hangouts and everything else with my teammates, my brothers were over. As a senior and co-captain of the team it hurts that I was unable to go out on top, or at the very least fight for it. It hurts that I was two points away from scoring my 1000th point in college, a milestone that every kid dreams about and one that only 41 players in Penn history were able to reach. It hurts that I never came back to campus after spring break and was able to go to class. And hurts that I wasn’t able to walk across the stage at graduation and celebrate graduating from an Ivy League school with my family and peers.
Photo by Son Nguyen
The truth is, I might never completely get over what happened, but it’s been easier to accept overtime. All I can do is move on. I was always a fan of the late rapper Nipsey Hussle. One of my favorite quotes of his about success is, “We got turned down, we failed, had setbacks, had to start over a lot of times. But we kept going at it. In anybody’s case that’s always the distinguishing factor.”
Through it all, I have failed and had setbacks, but persevered and will continue to.
I remember writing a reflection piece in high school during my last year of AAU entitled, “Varsity Blues.” Reading it now, I was so naïve of how wild of a rollercoaster ride it would be to achieve the vision of success I had for myself. In the reflection piece, I stated, “Last year I earned two offers from both Penn and Lafayette, but I am determined to earn even more.” I earned one to be exact, then ironically lost two of them, leaving me with just Penn. My career at Penn forced me to grow, especially mentally. Whether things were going my way or not (believe me there was a lot that didn’t), I had to learn how to control my emotions. I had to stick to the script and work my tail off until I finally had a breakout season junior year. My senior year, I played nearly the entire season with a broken wrist after fracturing my shooting hand seven games into the season. Through it all, I have failed and had setbacks, but persevered and will continue to. The Coronavirus pandemic for me and hopefully for everybody else is just another setback that will make the end goal even more rewarding.