Be true to your school, values

How people choose to represent themselves is a choice for each individual.
In becoming part of something larger than yourself, you automatically become a symbol of the bigger whole.

It's important to remember this in the decisions you make throughout your life.

Coming to Ottawa University, each student made the choice to become a supporter of the school. Whether you support specific decisions of the institution is your own choice, but the decisions you make will always reflect the University.

Throwing on that practice jersey after a tough Friday night's practice and throwing back a few beers and posting the night's pictures on Facebook probably isn't the best decision.
As a representative of a particular sport, athletes should want to be exemplary in their activities even outside of the school.

In competitions or activities at the school one should remember not only who they are but what they are representing.

It isn't funny to make lude or crude jokes when there are guests on campus for all students' benefit. People don't appreciate you looking like a fool or making others feel so.

A lot of the things we do to impress others are at the expense of what we purport to respresent.

It is not wrong to want to be accepted or liked, but we must take into account: at what cost are we catering to what we think other people want?

When you first stepped foot on the college campus after packing all your belongings into your new dorm you probably felt a sense of overwhelming freedom and independence.

Freedom from your family, freedom from your hometown, and just the simple freedom to make your own decisions.

Why squander that freedom on becoming a slave to what you think others should percieve you as?

You must be true to yourself and to those you represent. If you can't be true to either of these then you have a lot of self-analyzing to do.

Lastly, in being chosen by the student body or faculty as a ambassador of the establishment, you have to make extra consideration toward your actions.

Take pride in the fact that many people look up to you and have chosen you to stand for them.

You've already won them over, there's no need to patronize their decision by misrepresenting the majority.