Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro Campus is a diverse campus with lots of joyous energy. Ranging from the students who unicycle to class to students who participate in intramural sports for fun. This amazing campus features students from all walks of life.
However, the questions that should be asked are: Do we really know each other? Who are we as people?
Introducing a familiar face among the students of Statesboro is none other than Matthew O’Conner. O’Conner is a freshman at GS on the Statesboro campus, majoring in chemistry.
George Anne Staff: “How is your experience so far at GSU?”
Matthew O.: “Overall, it’s way too complicated with the online stuff to turn stuff in, even though I’m in all in person classes. But you know, the freedom is nice. I can go anywhere I want at any point in time.”
George Anne Staff: “Students and Staff see you unicycling around campus, what about it grabbed your attention to pick up that passion?”
Matthew O.: “Well, actually, about two or three years ago, I was coming up here to Georgia, Southern to pick up my brother, because he had classes. He was trying to come home, but his car broke down. I was sitting in the parking lot coming to pick him up, and I saw somebody unicycling to class here at Georgia Southern and I was like, wow, that’s rad. I could totally do that. So I bought a unicycle online and learned how to ride it for my drama program.
Now I’m just like here at Georgia Southern. So I said, might as well ride my unicycle to class like that guy who inspired me.”
George Anne Staff: “How difficult was it to learn how to Unicycle?”
Matthew O. “I spent a summer trying to learn how to unicycle. I was practicing almost daily, somewhere between daily and once a week, depending on the different time of summer, and it was really difficult. I had friends to help me at first. They would literally hold my hand so I could keep my balance while I was riding it. And then I went over to the tennis court, and I would just kind of hold on to the tennis net, and I would kind of try and roll around without falling over while holding on something.
Eventually I got to the point where I could just roll around and not hold on to anything, and sometimes fall down. It took months and months of practice. I put it down for a while, to pick it back up a year later, and put it down for a while. And, you know, here I am. I still fall off sometimes, and I started doing this like two, three years ago.
A lot of people think it’s funny, but to me, it’s not a joke. You know, it’s not something that I do to make people laugh. It’s something I do because it’s difficult. The very act of unicycling, it’s, it’s like something a clown would do, yeah, it’s funny and all that. But that’s not why I do it, every moment that I get on there, before I even get on there, it’s hard to do. It’s something that’s difficult in my life. I gotta constantly keep my balance while I’m on there, and I feel like that’s something everybody really needs in their life. It’s something that’s difficult, that they can’t do all the way perfectly, that they’re always striving to get better. That’s my philosophy on it and why I ride it every day.”
