As I think back over my past two years here on campus, there have definitely been some major highlights along the way, along with the occasional setbacks and disappointments.

However, the only activity I can honestly say has given me only smiles and fun memories has been my involvement with intramural sports.

This past Sunday, to my delight, the fall intramural season once again kicked off at various spots all over the University of Wisconsin campus.

It wasn’t until the opening kickoff of my first soccer game that I realized how much fun intramurals are and how much I miss them once they are over for the season.

UW Rec Sports defines intramural sports as “an organized program which provides each participant the opportunity: to experience competition as an individual and as a member of an organized group; to accept winning as well as losing, and to respond to both with appropriate conduct; to develop a sense of sportsmanship and esprit de corps.”

As I read that description I felt that it was not at all accurate as to what intramurals mean to most UW students or what importance they have in their lives.

During half time of my soccer game Monday, I sat talking to a fellow teammate about our intramural soccer experiences from the past two years.

We both decided intramurals are the most awesome stress-reliever a student can have.

Many students juggle full-time jobs, internships, student orgs, their social life and the reason we all are here: to get a degree. It is hard for most students to find something that will allow them the chance to unwind and enjoy themselves for a few hours every week.

In intramural sports I have found exactly that, a time to unwind and have fun with some of my closest friends whom I may not have time to see otherwise during my busy weeks.

Not only have intramurals became a stress-reliever for many students, they are also a way for students, who were extremely active in sports during their high school and youth years to continue playing and enjoying their respective sports.

I am also a firm believer that many students on this campus were awesome athletes in high school and that there are thousands of all-conference players and MVPs from their respective teams here. Many of these players gave up their dreams of playing a sport in college to attend UW.

It is very likely that a large majority of the athletic people here on campus could have had the opportunity to play Division 2 or 3 athletics somewhere, but in the end decided that everything UW had to offer outweighed playing D-3 football or soccer at a school of around 5,000 people.

There is also the group of athletes that dedicated their lives to playing sports up until graduation and finally decided they wanted to do different things at college.

Regardless of their backgrounds, skill levels or reasons not to play on a collegiate team, many UW students find playing intramurals allows them to continue with one of their passions, while only having to dedicate a few hours a week to playing.

Intramurals allows students to continue to incorporate sports into their lives and to continue to enjoy everything that makes them love playing in general.

I, for one, can honestly say that if I did not continue to play sports here at UW, I would feel empty inside, not to mention even more hyper and full of energy than I normally am.

In the years to come, I know I will remember my freshman year in ultimate frisbee, diving into the mud after a particularly rainy game or the year my volleyball team name was The Lint, how I would ice skate on the slippery SERF floor with a fellow roommate and the year I hit a three-pointer in a basketball game, something I had never done before.

These are memories that will be more important to me years after I graduate and can no longer remember what grades I got on a test or even what classes I took my freshman year.

College is definitely one of those times when life is wide open, and how the years are molded is entirely up to you and only you.

By allowing intramurals to be a part of my life, I have been able to keep one of the most solid parts of my past and mesh it together with my new friends here at UW and the many new memories I have created.

Intramurals are an awesome way to become active on this campus, and I encourage all students who would like to play a sport, from flag football to floor hockey to softball, to get involved.
Take advantage of the enormous intramural system here on campus; it is guaranteed to make your time here at UW more memorable.