Damn I'm cold, I thought as I got my ass into my dorm. I don't know why I ever moved to Virginia. The place is so damn cold, it's not even funny. I guess I came for the education. The University of Russell offered me a full academic scholarship which I accepted. It's not like my other options were too appealing. Still, there are times when I thought my siblings, Jake and Maria got the better deal by going to Morehouse College and Georgia State University, respectively.
My name is John Marcelin and I'm a young black man of Haitian descent living in the state of Virginia, though the part about where I reside should have been clear by now. I come from a rather fortunate background. My father, James Marcelin is the Chief Executive Officer of Marcelin & Dale Enterprises, a civil engineering firm located in our hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. My mother Samantha Howard Marcelin is the Provost of Greater Atlanta Community College. They raised me and my siblings in a strict but loving home. Even though we were millionaires, they knew the world wouldn't be kind to us and taught us the value of hard work. That's why we attended our city's public schools and had to work our butts off to win scholarships to the colleges and universities of our choices. My parents didn't spoil us. We lived in a nice house in a wealthy neighborhood, but lived frugally.
Jake Marcelin, my older brother currently plays varsity football for the Maroon Tigers team of Morehouse College. My older sister Maria attends nearby Georgia State University on an academic scholarship, though she's also a member of the university women's rugby club. I chose Russell University mainly because it was far away from home. Russell University was founded in 1978 by a philanthropist conglomerate and has been a small but expensive private institution. In 2000, they were accepted into the N. C. A. A Division One and sponsor Men's archery, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, gymnastics, bowling, cross country, soccer, volleyball, swimming, rugby, lacrosse, football, wrestling, golf and tennis along with Women's archery, softball, basketball, ice hockey, gymnastics, cross country, soccer, swimming, rugby, lacrosse, field hockey, equestrian, golf, wrestling, bowling, tennis and volleyball.
Unlike most private schools which aren't Ivy League, Russell University doesn't offer athletic scholarships. How about that? They were both cheap and expensive. Oops, sorry. I guess I shouldn't bad mouth them. I mean, I never know who might read these lines someday. The school costs thirty five grand a year, including room and board. Luckily I got a free ride. Even for a family like mine, the costs were getting up there. Since moving into the dorms, I acclimated myself to campus life. I made a few friends. And I went to class and studied. Russell University's student body was fifty percent male and fifty percent female. That's cool, especially in an age where male students were the new minorities on campus. The school was also eighty eight percent white. How about that? I didn't let that bother me. I wanted to get my engineering degree and then move on to bigger and better things.