Embrace the uncomfortable

Believe it or not, the NFL wasn’t even on my radar for much of the time I was in Nebraska.

Like most kids, my dad was my hero, so I especially wanted to get my degree and become a mechanical engineer like him.

I went in a slightly different direction by getting my construction management degree, but when I got to Nebraska I knew what I wanted.

I was here to play football, get my degree and then go back to Oregon to help with my dad’s business.

However, our journeys are not always so linear.

There was even another instance where I considered leaving Nebraska.

Not for the NFL, but to go back home to Oregon State.

I can’t say it enough – my family means the world to me – and being so far away from them left me torn inside.

I was desperately homesick.

But I vividly remember Coach Pelini challenging me.

He coached all these guys at LSU who went on to play in the NFL, and he asked me, “Why can’t you be one of those guys?”

Then I started thinking, you know what, he’s right.

What kept me from getting drafted into the NFL like the guys who came before me, like Jay Moore and Adam Carriker?

The coach challenged me, so I decided to challenge myself by not going home because that would have been the safe and comfortable thing to do.

I owed it to myself to embrace the uncomfortable, knowing not only the potential I had here in Nebraska, but how much I would grow as a person and build my character by meeting that challenge head-on.

I didn’t know what awaited me for the rest of my career at Nebraska, but I had the right attitude and mentality to tackle whatever came my way.

Proud of you Suh! https://t.co/MeA1zdBTxK

— Bo Pelini (@BoPelini) August 17, 2021