Alan Xavier is the name and adventure is the nature of my game. I'm a six-foot-two, somewhat chubby but still quite good-looking young black man living in the town of Brockton, Massachusetts. I attend Bartleby College, where I major in Business Administration. I come from a somewhat well-off Haitian-American family. My father, Joseph Xavier is a civil engineer working for one of Boston's top companies. My mother, Helen James Xavier is a professor of literature at Lesley University. We live in a nice duplex in the city of Brockton's quietly affluent West Side. And life has been good to us. Even in these economically challenging times. I guess we have a lot to be thankful for. Still, I lead a pretty sedentary lifestyle. Which is probably why I crave adventure so much.
Folks, I got something to confess. I crave excitement. I guess you could say that I'm an adrenaline junky. Side effect of living a sheltered lifestyle. Back in Brockton, I attended Cardinal Spellman Academy, a private Catholic school. My parents wanted me to go to Northeastern University, another lily-white private institution. I wanted to be around my own people for a change. I was sick and tired of being the token black guy at traditionally white institutions. So I opted for Bartleby College, the only four-year historically black college in the state of Massachusetts. A black-owned private school whose faculty and students would be friendly to black students because they're black themselves. According to their website, eighty percent of the student body was of African-American descent. Hispanics and Asians made up twelve percent and Caucasians made up the remaining eight percent. Attending a prestigious private school where black students were the majority? I couldn't pass up such a chance!
Bartleby College was highly recommended by my cousin Samuel Xavier, the weirdest guy in my family. Our favorite trickster, adventurer and prankster. He's a big and tall black man who's openly bisexual. Not an easy thing to do when you're a Haitian-American. Samuel Xavier has always been about breaking barriers. He's a self-published black erotica author, bisexual activist and men's issues specialist. He does volunteer work aimed at helping male victims of abuse. The man is bold, and utterly shameless. And he thinks very highly of himself. Also, he changes boyfriends and girlfriends more often than he changes haircuts. My parents don't like Samuel. They think he's a hothead. I've always thought he was cool. So when he told me Bartleby College was the place for me, I listened to what the man had to say.
At first glance, Bartleby College was promising. There are about eight thousand students, and five hundred faculty members. The school was located in downtown Boston. After a ten-year fundraiser, Bartleby College acquired the land which it built its football stadium in. Having a football team was part of Bartleby College's effort to attract male students. At coeducational institutions which are historically black, male attendance tends to be low. Bartleby College wasn't about to let down the black college man. And you know what? Their efforts worked. Fifty two percent of the incoming freshman class was male. At first at any historically black college or university in the United States of America. I fell in love with the campus, folks. Finally a school where I wouldn't get stared at just because I'm a black male. Bartleby College took care of its own. They knew how to make a brother feel welcome.
I've always been an athlete, so I thought about trying out for one of Bartleby College's varsity teams. They offered men's and women's Basketball, men's Baseball, women's Softball, men's and women's Swimming, men's and women's Track & Field, men's and women's Cross Country, women's Equestrian, men's and women's Volleyball, women's Bowling, men's Football, men's and women's Wrestling and men's and women's Rugby. The sports teams were all Division Three. No athletic scholarships. So many sports teams, so little time. I thought about the men's varsity swim team. I know how to swim but I don't like wearing bathing suits. I also don't like to swim around people. I prefer to use the pool by myself. There was a large pond near our house in Brockton. I've gone swimming in it countless times. The Bartleby College men's and women's varsity Swim teams had a lot of black athletes on them. I found that a nice change. In most people's minds, black folks make for lousy swimmers. At lot of HBCUs were starting swim teams to defy those stereotypes. Black people can become presidents, senators, governors and Fortune Five Hundred CEOs. And now we were invading previously white-held territory in NCAA swimming.
