An Email I Received When I Quit Rowing

Names have been changed to protect the innocent. I have chosen not to fix any errors or add [sic] after each of them because there are too many.

Morgan,
Im writing this email from the perspective of wanting you to continue to row and with no intention of disrespect. Unless I completely missed something I heard this morning that you were planning on quitting crew. Honestly I'm shocked that you would say this. Im guessing that you saw Chauncey and Beatrix quit and believed that this was an acceptable and OK thing to do. Beatrix is a senior, has given a lot to the program as both a coxswain and a rower, and I was not involved in her decision. As disapointed as I am with Chauncey that is nothing compared to what I will feel for yoiu if you do indeed quit because there is a key difference between the two of you. That difference is that you were a recruited rower, meaning that our coaching staff went to admissions and asked for them to give you priority in getting into the school because you would contribute to the crew program. As impressive as you may believe you were in highschool, Vassar is an incredibly hard school to get into and it is very likely that you would not be here were it not for crew. I cant speak for you, however I can speak for myself as I was also recruited and I know that its likely I would not be here if our former coach had not helped me out. When you told our coaches you intended to row here, you made a commitment to do just them and to the school to do just that. To quit after 3 weeks of practice is frankly unacceptable. It reflects poorly on the program you came from, the coaches who recommended you, it reflects poorly on Otto in the eyes of admissions for trusting you and hampers his ability to get future recruits into the school. Most of all it reflects poorly on you. On top of that there is the commitment you made to us as your teamates. I do not know how much of this was ever explained to you, and I apologize if you did not realize it. What i'm guessing happened to you is that you saw other people quitting and figured that it was an OK thing to do. It is not. This is a varsity sport, not a club that you can come and go from. However, if you are to quit, we at least deserve and explanation as to why you are, and why you think it is ok to disregard all of this.
Also, as someone who has been rowing for awhile, remember that this is the last chance you will have to row competetively. Sherman is writing two theses this year and applying to med schools. multiple people on the team have doubled majored and are involved in many other activities on campus. No matter how it seems, it is possible to balance crew with whatever else you want to do. I'm also telling you that the team needs you if we want to continue to build. So, what i'm asking is that you put some serious thought into your decision and hopefully youll not quit, and if you do, you will explain to me why. If you are struggling with rowing, talk to other rowers on the team. We have all struggled at some point, and all wanted quit at some point. There is a reason we are all still here, and you owe it to yourself to figure out what that reason is.
respectfully, Marvin

I recently discovered that the author of this email later quit rowing.