[Environmental Portrait 2] Andrew King

 

Andrew King is college student here at Georgia Southern and a Axis Student Living resident. "Living here has helped me a ton with how close it is to campus."

[PHOTOSTORY: ADITL] A Day in the Life as a Strengh Coach at GSU

 

Strengh Coach Keegan Smith is knuckle punching an athlete in the weight room. Keegan Smith starts his day by greeting athletes while they are warming up for lift. 

        Keegan Smith is talking to Mayte Camcho during warm ups next to Maddie Cugino(Left) and Hadley Porter (Right). Keegan Smith makes sure all of this athletes are set and ready for lift by having personal quick conversations with everyone. 

     

        Keegan Smith is standing in the center of the weight room. Keegan Smith guides the team through a warm up pior to starting lift. 

        Keegan Smith preparing to hand out the bands for the rest of the warm up. Keegan Smith makes sure that the team has everything they need in order to complete the full warm up. 

     Keegan Smith wathcing over the team. After he handed out the bands he runs the team through a band workout. 

 

       Keegan Smith watching the team very closely during their last few warm up exercises. It is Keegan Smiths job to make sure the team is doing the stretches and movements correctly. 

        Keegan Smith laughing with the team huddled around. After the warm up is complete, Keegan Smith than huddles the girls together to talk about the workout they are going to complete for the day. 

       Keegan Smith talking privately with one of the injured athletes. As a strengh coach Keegan Smith wants to make sure all of his athelets, injuried or health, are able to strenghten their bodies in the correct way. 

      Keegan Smith making modifications to an injuired athletes lift sheet. Keegan Smith will make modifications to a workout for injured athletes to make sure they are getting stronger but staying safe. 

 Keegan Smith breaking it down with the team. After the whole team has completed the workout for the morning, Keegan Smith will then send the team to practice by breaking it down, yelling Eagles on 3. 

    Keegan Smith relaxing outside in the warmish weather. After all of Keegan Smith's teams are done lifitng in the morning, he sits outside and enjoys fresh air. 

       

      " This is one of my favorite times of the day, I get to just sit outside enjoy the weather and try to relax. It is truly a blessing to be able to get paid to relax sometimes" - Keegan Smith 

    

    Keegan Smith walking back inside of Iron Works. After he is done trying to catch some rays Keegan Smith goes back inside to see what is next. 

     Keegan Smith talking to a the Rifle Head Coach. After Keegan Smith went inside and changed from his tanning clothes, he ran into the head coach and checked in to see how he was doing. 

        Keegan Smith starting his daily walk. After Keegan Smith made sure everything was all set and good in Iron Works, he headed out for his daily walk on campus. 

    Keegan Smith walking through campus. Keegan Smith is not a fan of cardio, so to get his cardio in he goes on a 2 mile walk every single day around campus to keep his blood flowing. 

      Georgia Southern logo covered in flowers. The campus was beautiful on the 2 mile walk, flowers were shinning, students were out, and the air was nice and cool. 

       Keegan Smith checking his phone on his walk. During his walk, his mind was not fully settled, Keegan Smith received a text about updated times the bus is leaving for the Softball team today. 

       Keegan Smith headed back into Iron Works after his walk. Keegan Smith is leaving with the softball team today to go to Clemson for the weekend, he is in a rush to get ready. 

    Keegan Smith checking his computer. Before Keegan heads out with the softball team, he checks to make sure everything is all set up for his other teams before he leaves. 

        Keegan Smith getting ready to head out. Keegan is grabbing his bag before he heads down to the softball fields to get on the bus to head out. 

[PHOTOSTORY 2: ADITL] Everyday Magic

By: Daisy Davis

Michael Allen stands in the "Magic: The Gathering" card section of Galactic Comics and Games store in Statesboro, GA. He is looking to buy some new cards with his tip money from working at Waffle House over the weekend. 

Michael Allen shuffles through decks of cards to pick out the ones he would like to purchase. "Magic: The Gathering" is a multiplayer tabletop card game that Michael enjoys playing with his friends in his free time.

Michael Allen waits for assistance from an employee so that he can purchase a deck of cards. "You can look the decks up online to get a catalog of the cards that will likely be in them, so sometimes it's better than sorting through hundreds of cards," Michael said.

Michael Allen leaving Galactic Comics and Games store with $40 worth of "Magic: The Gathering" cards. Michael said he plans to go back to the store soon to play the trading card game and meet new people.

Michael Allen sitting at his desk to open new packs of "Magic: The Gathering" cards he purchased. When Michael isn't working, he enjoys hanging out with friends, playing trading card games, campaign games, and reading fantasy novels. 

Michael Allen shuffling through a newly opened pack of cards. "The foil cards like this one are always fun to show off because shiny cards are just cool, everyone wants those," Michael said.

Michael's desk is filled with books, cards, and keepsakes that have been given to him by his friends and family. Michael works at Smoothie King and Waffle House throughout the week and on the weekend, unless he has to report for the National Guard.

Michael Allen reaches for a box of cards on his desk. "The desk might look a little messy, but it's just crowded. I promise there's some organization to it," Michael said. 

     Michael Allen holds a case of cards he's been collecting over the past year. Michael said that he buys these cases because they help him keep the cards in order and each box can hold around 10 packs of cards.
                                                                             

Michael Allen looks through his fifth pack of cards for the day. In a trading card game like Magic: The Gathering, the more cards you have, the better.

Michael Allen's wall displays several posters and National Guard memorabilia. "The bottom one is a marksman ribbon for shooting expert and the top is a National Guard Insignia," Michael said.

Michael Allen is holding a ring he was given after joining the Army National Guard. He joined in February of 2018 to train on Chinook aircraft repair. 

Michael Allen shows me the ring. The ring is engraved with the phrase, "Death Before Dishonor."

Michael Allen pulls out a pair of old boots he wore for 5 years to National Guard drill weekends. "Yeah so, as you can see, the new ones are in much better condition," Michael said.

Michael Allen reaches for his Waffle House hat to get ready for work at 2 p.m. Michael is saving up for a car, so he currently rides a bicycle and has to leave early to get to work on time.

Michael Allen fixing the chain on his bike before he heads out for the day. He says that his bike usually needs a few repairs a week, so he does them at home to save money.

                       

                    

Michael Allen moves his hands off the greasy bike chain. "If I don't check it and make sure it's on right before I leave, it usually causes me problems and I have to stop to fix it anyways," Michael said.

Michael Allen carries his bike out of his apartment and down twenty stairs before he rides to work. Michael has lived at Eighteen18, an off-campus housing unit at Georgia Southern, for almost half a year now. 

Michael looks at a neighbor and smiles. Michael is not currently enrolled in school, but he wants to save up enough money to go to a university and study physics.

Michael Allen biking from his apartment to Waffle House. He bikes 13 minutes to work, six days a week. 

[PHOTOSTORY 2: ADITL] A Day In the Life of a music composition masters student preparing for his graduate recital

 

Faye Chu (right) is heading to his first music rehearsal of the day with his cello and his girlfriend Mary Mason (left) is coming with him.
Faye is in his last year of graduate school at Georgia Southern as a music composer, and is also a cellist, so he'll be playing his own compositions for his recital. 

Faye is laughing at a joke his girlfriend Mary just told him. 
"Why is a cello better than a violin? It burns longer",  joked Mary. 

Cat Chu, Faye's brother, is playing in a few of Faye's ensembles for his recital. 
Cat went to Georgia Tech for engineering but kept up violin throughout college because he enjoyed it so much. 

Cat is practicing one of Faye's pieces called "Dialetic Strings"
Faye composed this piece and wants it to sound like a conversation between all the players.

Mia Passmore (left) is playing the viola in this ensemble, is working on a section in the Dialetic piece with Faye. 
Faye put in some tricky rhythms and is helping Mia understand them. 

Mia is showing a cool improvisation section off to Faye.

 Faye is inspired to edit her part and add it in for her. 

Mia laughs because Faye messes up on the rhythm he's trying to demonstrate to her.
"I guess it's easier to write it then actually play it," Mia laughs. 

Faye is back at his home and working on edits for his different compositions. 
He got more ideas when he was working with the other musicians in the rehearsals. 

Faye is looking through one of his music scores because he had a wrong note in the bass part and needs to change it.
He found it and was able to correct it.

Mia and Sushi, Faye and Mary's cats, are enjoying some dinner at their house. 

Faye had been gone all day because of his rehearsals and the cats were ready for their dinner. 

Mary tries to snuggle Mia and Mia resists.
According to Mary, Mia is the least cuddly of their cats. 

Faye then has to practice his piano part that is in one of his ensembles. 
He hasn't had as much time to spend on his piano as he's been so busy with school and rehearsing. 

Faye is adjusting the settings on his electronic piano. He will be using effects when he plays it in his recital, so he is trying to make sure he does it correctly.

Next, Faye has to practice his cello. This is the main instrument he'll be performing on in his recital, and he's had to practice and prepare a lot of music. 

 Faye is practicing a specific type of bow stroke called Spiccato, where the bow is going off and on the string in a very fast motion. 
"It took me weeks to get this! And still sometimes I have issues with it," exclaimed Faye.

Faye's mom, Katrina Chu, wants to accompany Faye for fun on his cello.
Katrina is in town from Florida for a while to visit and is staying with Faye and Mary for a week.

Faye's mom brought with her a Kamilba that she likes to play with.
She loves music and loves creating music with anything she can get. 

A few days later, Faye is doing a rehearsal with a pianist named Isaiah Taylor.
Faye wrote a duo for cello and piano and has just showed Isaiah his part.

Faye wants to make sure the piano lid stays open during the duo, because the sound needs to be reverberating strongly for the specific music style Faye is doing with this composition.

Isaiah is practicing through the new piece. "I love how passionate Faye is about composing, you can tell he is through the things he writes. It's all joy and excitement and you feel that when you're playing it," Isaiah says.