It happens to be that time of the year again. The weather isn't really as warm as it used to be during this unmanageable July months and all around America kids between the age of 18 and 22 are beginning to flock to a particular central area. This area, while it lay dormant for the summer months, is now filled with excitement, freshness, and an explosion of energy. This place is none other than university. The first couple days that people arrive at University is filled with a period in time called unpacking. After hauling all of your stuff away from home, you have a couple of days to organize yourself prior to classes. Of course, there are a lot of people who never end up organizing themselves, but that’s a completely different topic. Moving in is a stressful time, but is also a very fun and interesting time. If you're living with a roommate, it’s important to compromise and coordinate things so that it makes both parties happy. If you're living alone, it’s ideal to make yourself most happy by surrounding yourself with what pleases you. Creating a positive environment in which you live is conducive to creating positive experiences throughout the school year. With this move in period in mind, let’s take a look at some interesting moves that others have made and how it worked out for them.


Superb depiction of actual move in

Moves in Sports:
By far and away one of the feel-good stories of the summer, amidst all the other terrible atrocities like Mike Vick, Barry Bonds*, and Tim Donaghy, was the switch made by Rick Ankiel. Ankiel used to be a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2000. In 175 innings of work he had 194 strike outs, which is a superb rate for any pitcher. For some reason or another Ankiel suddenly, without warning, literally forgot how to pitch. It was quite a ridiculous occurrence. He started throwing very wildly and couldn't resolve the problem. As a result, he was moved down to the minors. Ankiel loved playing baseball and is a tremendous athlete, so he decided to reinvent his game and start learning how to bat. Being a major league batter doesn't just happen overnight, there is a great deal of work and skill that goes into it, but for Ankiel he was able to make the adjustment. This summer he worked his way back to the majors and is now playing outfield for the Cardinals. By far and away, this is one of the greatest moves ever made in all of sports.



Moves in Politics:
Following the rocky and tumultuous presidential election of 2000, Al Gore decided to shy away from politics for a while and focus his efforts elsewhere. The route that he decided to take was unorthodox but has definitely paid off for him. Al Gore decided to become an advocate for global warming and even produced a hit movie called, An Inconvenient Truth, which has inspired the world and has brought the idea of global warming to the forefront of peoples concerns. Even beyond this, Al Gore was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to educate and counter the slippery-slope that humanity was heading down. Al Gore has not come back to politics since that presidential election of 2000 and who can blame him. He has moved into a new realm and has become a truly dynamic and impressive icon in our society. Two big thumbs up for this move.



Moves in Technology:
Social networking is becoming bigger and bigger as the Internet grows up, and when you think social networking its almost synonymous with Facebook. Facebook is one of the biggest social networking websites on the Internet, however, the move that they made was a little less positive than the two already mentioned. Facebook was initially a community intended solely for college students. In order to have an account it was required for you to have a ".edu" e-mail address. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, noticed that only allowing his service to college students was stifling his growth and ultimately affecting his bottom line. As a result, Facebook was opened up to the whole world, no matter who you were, you could join Facebook so long as you had a valid e-mail address. This stirred up a great deal of controversey in the college world. It felt like Facebook was selling out, and essentially they were. This paid off huge for Facebook, however. They now have a far larger user base and get close to 100,000 new registrations a day. Opening Facebook was a good move for some, but not for others. People debate whether Facebook is getting too big. Whatever the outcome may be, the move was made and the results speak for themselves.



Moves in Hollywood:
When Paris Hilton hit the scene with her side-kick Nicole Richie on the show The Simple Life, nobody had any idea how this starlette would capture our attention. With her ridiculous antics and funny maxims like, "That's hot," and "That's hot," she seemed to cast a spell on America's public. It's hard to argue with the unexpected move that this girly girl made when she was thrown into prison for driving with a suspended license. Although she resisted she ended up having to spend a month in prison doing some hard time. She tried to run back to daddy to get her out of it, but he couldn't even do anything about it. I think the move from actress to hard criminal was an interesting choice for Hilton to make. Maybe she'll reconsider her decisions in the future. Probably not though.

Moving brings about change. Dealing with the change makes all the difference. When you move into college, do it with positivity and enthusiasm and you're laying a foundation for a great year to come. Be smart. Be aware. Be the solution.

This post was originally written by Tyrone Schiff
University of Michigan · Organizational Studies · 28 Aug 2007