Hanging out with Ryan Grant

Chilling. That’s what Ryan Grant likes to do the most. Whenever he is not whizzing through his math homework, he’ll be with his friends pulling pranks, playing football, ping pong, or football video games, like Madden ‘08. Of course, math homework doesn’t take that long for him.

Ryan Grant grew up in Colonial Heights, VA, a town about 20 minutes south of Richmond. He attended Colonial Heights High School, a very small school. He had a brother, age 6, and a sister, age15. His siblings lived with their mother while Grant lived with his father on the weekday and with his mom on the weekends. Despite the alternating schedule of spending time with his parents, he was very close with both of them. They weren’t strict with Grant, probably because he made good grades in school to keep them satisfied.

Before Grant went to tech, he lived a full high school life. “Ryan was very popular and had a lot of friends. He made the golf team his junior and senior year and did very well and was #1 on his team several different times,” his parents said, “He seemed to manage sports and good grades very well.” Aside from his athletic extracurricular activities, he was part of the National Honor Society and the Beta club, which definitely helped his acceptance into Virginia Tech.

“I was pretty tight with everyone at the school, but it wasn’t hard because the class size was so small that everyone knew each other anyways,” explains Grant. Even though there were cliques everywhere, he still managed to be good friends with almost everyone in his class. Whenever he wasn’t at practice or studying, he would be out with his friends driving around doing whatever. “One time my friends bought a super soaker and went to the drive-through of like MacDonalds and soaked the drive through person,” Grant said, “I wouldn’t soak anyone but it was still a lot of fun.”

Despite his popularity, Grant would usually be shy and quiet when you first meet him. But after you break through that silent shell, he’s a nice and humorous person that everyone wants to be friends with. “Ryan is a good friend of mine. He has a good sense of humor and knows how to have a good time. He is also very friendly and sometimes shy if he doesn't know you very well,” says Travis Moseley, one of Grant’s high school friends and mentor. “The thing I like the most about Ryan is he always wants and knows how to have fun and he knows how to treat his friends.”

Now Grant is a freshmen engineer at Virginia Tech. His aptitude in math will certainly help in his studies in engineering. “He’s good at math so he can help me with my math class,” explains his roommate. He used to have trouble with managing his time working and with his friends, but now that he’s in college, he promised himself to work better, and he has been working more efficiently. For example, even though he was #1 on his high school golf team and placed in tournaments, he chose his college grades over a college golf career.

He’s also been trying to be neater, cleaner, and more organized. He likes to have his dorm room clean and spotless. The garbage should be taken out often when necessary (Grant is usually the one who has to take it out) and his dirty clothes should be in the laundry hamper.

Grant still hasn’t changed much since he became a Hokie. On the weekdays he’ll wake up and be studying or doing homework in between classes. On the weekends, if you want to find him, you can usually find him either outside playing football or inside playing football video games. He still likes to play small pranks. “I hate that he’s always changing my (AIM) away message and facebook status to something retarded,” explains his roommate.

In ten years, Ryan Grant will probably be having poker nights with his friends every Thursday in his nice suburban house outside Richmond. Every Saturday night will be family night, which includes playing board games or watching a movie with his beautiful wife, (older) son, and (younger) daughter. He’ll be working at an engineering firm in the city, commuting to work in an Evo Lancer. After work he’ll pick up his kids from school and bring them to soccer practice… or maybe golf practice. Even when he’s grown up, I’m sure he’ll still be smiling about the good times he had with his friends in high school and college.