Eric Hacker

I happened upon the subject of this interview at Foster’s Dining Hall the afternoon on Friday, the last day before Spring Break. He and I are actually classmates in our math course. Believe it or not, he was the one who called me over. With a bowl of tomato soup in hand I made my way over to the table to join him. We talked for a few minutes, discussing the upcoming math quiz we had to take and whether or not we were ready for it. (We both agreed we weren’t, but we’d try anyway.) Since he was there and I was looking for people to interview, I asked him if he would like to do an interview for the Faces of I.U.P blog. He kindly accepted the offer.

As per usual, I started off with the simple questions.“What is your name?” I first asked him, more for the sake of the interview and my audience rather than myself.

“Eric Hacker,” he told me.

“Where are you from?”

“Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s about an hour south of Indiana.”

 “What is your major?”

“Exercise Science.”

“What year are you?”

“I’m a first semester freshman.”

This immediately caught my attention. I was curious as to why he had taken a semester off. I wanted to ask him, but I figured we could wait until we got past the easier questions. “Do you have any hobbies/interests/activities?”

“Well, exercising obviously.” Eric told me. Considering he was an Exercise Science major, I could see that. “I also like fishing, hunting and kayaking; anything outdoors really.”

“You’re one of those people who doesn’t like staying still?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “I’m also one of those people who doesn’t like staying inside. Even when it’s raining out I still like to go out and do something." Jokingly he added, ”Though I don’t like this cold.”  

“Why did you choose I.U.P?” I asked him.

“A lot of my family went here,” he explained to me. “My one cousin actually goes here. I visited a lot, and I liked the campus. Plus they had my major.  So I decided to come here.”

I nodded and decided to give in to my curiosity and ask him about being a first semester freshman. “Why did you decide to wait?”

“Well I decided to join the Air Force first,” Eric explained to me. “Then complications happened. They discharged me, so now I’m in school.”

I raised my eyebrows. Complications? I began to wonder. At first I was uncertain if I should ask though. After weighing the pros and cons in my head, I decided to risk it. After all, the worst thing  he could tell me was no and that he didn’t want to do the interview anymore. “Is it okay if I ask what those complications were?”

“I was having stomach pains.”  I could hear the disappointment in his voice as he explained to me why they discharged him. “They thought that I might have had appendicitis. That automatically disqualifies you from the job that I had. So they sent me home.”

I nodded my understanding. I did want to know more about his experience with the military. However, I decided to move on; partly because I wanted to find out more about him aside for his military experience- and I knew if I didn’t get that out of the way and I started on the topic of his military experience that those would be all the questions I’d ask. Another reason was because I had this sense that he didn’t really want to say more about being discharged at that moment. Maybe I was reading too much into it, or maybe I was misreading. In any case I decided that should the opportunity arise I would then revisit the topic. “So why did you want to go into Exercise Science?” I asked him.

His mood seemed to lift as I changed the subject. “I always liked working out and exercising. I want to help people be healthier and plan so they can change their life and turn it around.”

“Do you know what you want to do with your degree once you get it?”

“I want to become a personal trainer. I want to help people with nutrition and diet. I would like to become a fitness coach.”

I was curious. Being the major that I am, I have very little knowledge of what goes on with the medical majors aside from what friends or acquaintances tell me. “Who would you work with?” I asked him. I decided that maybe I should specify my answer. “Would you want to work with athletes, students, etc.?”

“At first I’ll start working with anyone. However, if I can get a job working with athletes at either high school or college level- maybe eventually professional level- that would be great. I’d be able to do all sorts of great stuff.”

I nodded and then asked him, “So why would you want to work with high school students?”

“I like the environment,” he explained to me. “I feel that it’s the place where many athletes begin to see their potential. They’re not at the upper-level yet, and you can help them by giving them something to work with and help them improve. If they go pro- you can say that you helped them along their way. Anyone that helps an athlete can get them out there.”

His talk about athletics got me curious about his own athletic experience. “What sports did you play in high school?” I asked him.

“I swam for two years. I ran cross country for three years and track for six.”

“Six years?” I asked, raising my eyebrows to make sure I heard him correctly.

“Yeah. Middle school and high school.”

I was impressed. “Did you guys make it to Districts?”

“Yeah, I went to Districts and Wipfeels. Got in those for both cross-country and swimming. We had a couple of people go to States.”

“What did you do when you were in track?” I asked him.

“Threw javelin, I sprinted, I tried distance and pole-vault. I pretty much tried everything. I was the best at javelin and I went to Wipfeels for that.” There was a sense of pride in his voice, but it wasn’t the overbearing or arrogant sort.

“What about swimming?” I asked him.

“Sprints mostly. Mainly the fifty-yard free-style. I went to Wipfeels for those. I would do water relays and medley relays. I only did two or three events by myself.”

I nodded. He had told me that much of his life revolved around physical activity. I wanted to find out more about his fondest memories in his involvement. So I asked him, “What is your fondest memory doing those activities?”

“Probably when we qualified for Wipfeels for swimming,” Eric told me. “We each had to swim our fastest time ever. We had to do it by six-tenths of a second- which is ridiculous for swimming. We all did it, and we made it to Wipfeels by a tenth of a second.”

“What is your fondest memory outside of doing your activities?”

“Spending time with my brother,” Eric told me. “He’s four years older than me. We used to not get along when we were younger. Then he went to college and we became good friends. Now I’m in college and we’re best friends. We talk pretty much every day. Spending time with him is pretty cool. We’ll sometimes go shooting, fishing or kayaking.”

“Do you have any favorite things to do outside of sports?” I asked him.

“I love music,” he told me without pause. “I play piano and actually taught myself. I can listen to a song and play it, since I can’t read music for piano. I also played guitar, trumpet and saxophone. Drums too.”

I was pretty impressed. “Were you in band or chorus at all?”

“Yeah, I was in concert band and jazz band for two years too.”

“You taught yourself how to play piano?” I then asked him. I was pretty amazed by this fact, my curiosity demanded me to learn more if I could. “When did you start doing that?”

“I took a lesson for three weeks in first grade, and then we moved. I didn’t learn too much about it with those lessons, I only learned scales. (I don’t even remember those.) I remember afterward, I still liked the sound of the piano. I would watch videos and listen to the sounds. I’d then associate them to an actual piano. So I learned to play that way.”

“Did you teach yourself all those other instruments or did someone else?” I asked him.

“All of them except for the guitar and trumpet. I took lessons for the guitar for ten years. The trumpet they teach you in school- but much of it is self-taught after fifth grade.”

Eric telling me about his music experience got me thinking also about his athletic experience, which in turn also got me thinking about his studies. “You said that you want to help people do better in athletics and that one day you can say you helped them get to where they are at. Was there anyone in your life who helped get you to where you’re at now?”

“All of my coaches and my grandfather taught me a lot. My family was all supportive. It’s nice because when you’re not certain if you can do it, they all know that you can. So it gives you motivation to do well. My drill instructors also left an impact.”

“Was there any coach in particular?”

“My cross-country and track coach,” Eric told me. “He coached my brother, and then he coached me. My coach helped me switch up my seasons instead of having me just focus one particular skill.”

“Do you think the professors here at I.U.P do a good job teaching Exercise Science?”

“Well, I don’t have too many classes in those since I’m a first semester freshman and I have to take care of my electives. I think that my Prevention of Injuries professor is pretty good though. He always stays up-to-date on his information, and he actually works as a professional trainer along the side.”

“As a first semester freshman, do you have any advice for incoming college students?”

“Be good at time management,” Eric told me without a moment’s pause. “Be organized and write stuff down. Things pile up and it can be easy to forget them if you don’t. It can mean the difference between passing and failing a class since you don’t have many points in college courses.”

I was curious to see if he was speaking from experience. “You said that time management and organization were something that people need to have. Did you have any struggles with it?”

“When I was in high school,” he told me. “When you join the military though they make you break that habit. They also make you memorize stuff.”

Since he brought up the topic of the military, I decided to go back to his experiences in the forces. 

“What memory stays with you whenever you think about the military?”

“There’s a lot,” Eric laughed as he thought. “My Basic Training was in Texas. I was there in July, which is the hottest month of the year. Since it was, I remember some of our exercises were in the pool.”

“Did you ever go to Texas before then?” I asked him.

“No,” he told me. “I heard people say that it was hot, and that it was more of a dry heat. In my opinion it’s actually pretty humid down there.”

“Where in Texas were you?” I asked him.

“San Antonio,” he told me. “We flew in to the Dallas Airport. We then had to take these little buses in order to get to San Antonio.”

“Where else have you been aside for Texas?” I asked him.

“Well, I went to Hawaii for my cousin’s wedding. None of the places I traveled to were real exciting aside for that. Hawaii was a blast. It’s weird because it’s warm but there’s always a breeze blowing in. All the restaurants are open and sometimes birds will fly in and sit on the tables. I think that’s weird, but aside for that it was pretty cool. We saw some tunnels that were dug beneath a volcano, and we went to see the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We stood on a boat and watched the Arizona under the water.”

“Was it real emotional?”

“Yeah. No one was talking. When you’re on the boat, you have this headset which tells you information about what happened. Then you take them off when you reach the Arizona Memorial. It’s so quiet and eerie. The only sound you hear is the oil flowing up from the ship towards surface.”

“Did you get to interact with the locals and the Native Hawaiians?” I asked him.

“Yeah! My cousin actually married a Hawaiian Native and their entire family is Native Hawaiian. Talking to them and learning about their culture was really interesting. It was pretty cool to learn about their traditions.”

“Did you have a favorite thing about Texas?” I asked.

“Not really. I heard there were things to do such as the River Walk. I also heard the town was really cool. I was in camp for most of the time.”

“Was it in Basic that they discovered you were having your issues?”

“Yeah. They started realizing it during the work-outs. My sides were beginning to hurt badly. I think it was just from dehydration. They said it was something with my appendix and you can’t really fight that.”

I nodded. “Was your plan to just join the Air Force or were you also looking into going into college eventually?”

“No, I just wanted to go into the Air Force. Ever since I was eight I knew I wanted to go in the military. It wasn’t until I was ten that I decided on the Air Force. I made into the Special Forces, and I signed on to be a para-rescue man. I wanted to do that as long as I could since it’s a tough job and I like the challenge.”

“What do para-rescue people do?”

“They deal with mass-casualty situations. It’s almost like what you see in the movies. If there’s a situation like a hurricane or a problem that requires the rescue of large numbers, the Special Forces get called in to evacuate them. They also help evacuate any soldiers who are allied with ours. They can do missions involving scuba-diving, sky-diving, helicopters, you name it. When I joined, I didn’t want to get stuck with a desk job; I wanted something hard.”

“After you got discharged, why did you decide to go to college?”

“There was nothing else to do. I worked at a metal shop for a while and learned to weld during the fall and winter semester. I discovered that it was something I didn’t want to do with my life. So I decided I should go to college so I can learn to do something that I like. It’s difficult now because I have very little financial aid and it’s expensive. I’m hoping I can qualify for it next semester though.”

Our interview drew to an end. After I thanked him, we continued to sit together and talk about life until it was time to head to our math class. We took a picture of him inside Foster near the entrance of to the actual dining area. Again I thanked him for letting me interview him and we made our way together to our math course.

As I’m writing this post, I can’t help but wonder about how disappointed Eric must have been that he couldn't fulfill his dream to become a para-rescuer. It’s not easy to be told you can’t fulfill a lifelong dream of yours, especially when you were presented with the opportunity to do so and then come to find out that due to circumstances- you won’t be able to completely actualize it. However, I’m glad that Eric is now on a path that he feels he enjoys and wants to do. He has shown that despite the challenges that he has been faced he is always willing to keep trying. Even if in the end he can’t succeed- he isn't afraid to pursue new dreams and do what he loves. I would like to take a few moments to wish him the best of luck as he continues down the path of his college career and his goal to becoming a Personal Trainer. I hope that when you do, you’ll get to be able to help many people turn their life around.

Unfortunately, we have reached the end of this post. Of course, there are still plenty of people to interview. As always, feedback is appreciated. Be sure to check back in next time- and if you’re an I.U.P student or family member- be sure to enjoy the Spring Break!