2. She is currently a Sophomore, and she plans to major in Corporate Communications.

3. Although from Wisconsin, she is a big fan of the Chicago Cubs. She does still root for the Packers when it comes to football, though.

4. She works for Marquette’s Athletic Media Relations, and is involved with the Love your Melon crew.

5. When it comes to music, she listens to a little bit of everything. Some of her go-to artists include Ed Sheeran,Thomas Rhett, and James Arthur.

6. She loves to travel, and recently went on a mission trip to Nicaragua. She also hopes to study abroad in Rome in the fall of 2018!

7. Abbey is a big fan of baseball, and she has been playing softball since she was 5 years old!

8. Abbey is big into fitness, and does Crossfit 5 times a week!

9. She loves trying new, exciting foods!

10. Her dream is to end up working either for a professional sports team, or with a company that will allow her to travel the world.

In an article written by Larry Cohen of The San Diego Tribune titled “Time to tackle football safety,” he notes how CTE has become a serious problem not only for former professional football players, but also for players of all ages.

“Every year, more than 25,000 young football players between the ages of 8 and 19 land in the emergency department with head injuries, and players as young as 7 suffer blows to the head comparable to injuries sustained by fully grown football players,” he wrote. These are disconcerting stats, and they show a serious need for change to not only the rules of football, but also changes as to how football is taught.

As his article goes on, Cohen makes calls for change, saying “we must take steps to change the circumstances in which injuries occur — including reconsidering how the sport is played and the risk-taking norms this style of play promotes.”

One of the biggest calls for change that he makes is to try to reduce the amount of tackling in high school and college football, and even going so far as to say that we should “…ban tackle football children under age 12.”

One big problem with many of his ideas is that they involve drastically changing the most popular American sport, which is not as easy to do as it sounds. The NFL — who has seen 87/91 deceased former players affected by CTE — has tried in the past to cover up just how dangerous the game of football is, and only just recently began to address the problem. According to a Sports Illustrated article written by Erin Flynn titled “What is the NFL’s concussion protocol?” the NFL first adopted their concussion protocol in 2013, detailing how to assess and diagnose concussions during the course of an NFL game. The league has also begun to penalize players for committing hard hits to the heads of other players, but this is not nearly enough to make a significant difference.

As Cohen details in his article, there needs to be widespread changes to the rules and teaching of football. In it’s current state, many players will continue to develop CTE later in life. This is a trend that can be remedied, but it’s not going to be easy. From the NFL to youth football leagues, there needs to be a consistent message about the dangers of head trauma and CTE. For the sake of the players health, and the integrity of America’s favorite game, something has to change. “Parents, football players, the NFL, universities and fans — we all have a responsibility,” Cohen wrote. “When life-threatening and life-altering injuries are built into the way the game is played, it’s time to change the rules of the game.”

In recent years, CTE became a very important issue in regards to the game of football, as dozens of former NFL players have been diagnosed with the disease years after retiring. This presents many issues for current and former football players, many of whom have had concussions and head trauma during their football-playing careers. This begs the question: How can former and current players know if they have CTE or not? One way is to know what to expect when it comes to symptoms, which the Mayo Clinic said includes “Difficulty thinking, impulsive behavior, depression/apathy, memory loss, loss of executive function, emotional instability, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.” The full list of symptoms is not currently known and not all symptoms necessarily signify the presence of CTE, making it a difficult disease to diagnose. For more information on what to expect from the disease, look at The Mayo Clinic’s page on CTE.

In April 2014, an ESPN “Outside the Lines” article titled “Dorsett, others show signs of CTE,” interviews were conducted with former NFL players Tony Dorsett, Joe DeLamielleure and Leonard Marshall about their recent diagnoses of CTE, and the way that the disease had effected their lives. When “Outside the Lines” interviewed Dorsett about why he had decided to seek treatment, he told them that he had been experiencing “memory loss, depression, and thoughts of suicide.” Dorsett, who played for The Dallas Cowboys for 12 seasons during his professional career, talked about instances where he would forget where he was, what he was doing, or why he was doing it. He also experienced many emotional outbursts towards his family, and was unable to control his emotions. Dorsett is not alone in these struggles, as many other former players have experienced many of the same hardships and symptoms that he has after his playing career. DeLamielleure detailed what CTE has done to him, saying, “When I sit for any length of time, I get depressed for no reason…I’ve had short-term memory loss, erratic behavior where the least little thing would set me off, and I’ve experienced fogginess and even been in a daze at times.”

Through interviews and tests, much is being learned about the mysterious disease and how to diagnose it.

“Until we had the ability to see it in a living breathing person, we had no chance of helping them… There’s a lot of scientific investigation and rigor and publication and peer review that needs to be done on this, but initially, we’re optimistic and excited about the potential of the test” said Neurosurgeon Julian Biles. “I have CTE. Let’s see what the heck we can do about it,” said DeLamielleure

1. Do you generally feel happy?

2. What kind of friends do you like to surround yourself with?

3. How do you usually talk with your friends?

4. Do you feel like you matter to your friends?

5. Do you ever do or say things just to support your friends?

6. Do you feel valued?

7. What kind of things do you do with people?

8. What kind of conversations do you have with people?

9. Would you consider yourself to be more of a leader, or a follower?

10. Why do you hangout with the people that you do?

11. Are you an assertive person?

12. How do you converse with people?

13. Do you feel under appreciated at times?

14. Do you strive to be something that you’re not?

15. How does your relationships with people effect your self confidence?

16. Do you believe that you have good self esteem?

17. Do you feel like your self esteem is dependent upon others’ approval?

18. Why is the approval of others’ important?

19. Do you think that self esteem can have a toll on someone’s outlook on life?

20. Do you believe that seeking the approval of others is still important?

After reading the article entitled “19 Things To Do In Your 20's,” I selected the “thing” was to stop seeking the approval of other people so hard. I interviewed my friends Matt, Jonah, and Ian with the questions that I listed above.

One of the most memorable quotes from these interviews was when I asked Matt how his self confidence was effected by his relationships with others, to which he answered “I feel like self-confidence is almost entirely effected by the relationships you have, and how you’re treated within those relationships.” I found this to be a pretty interesting answer. I had never really thought about it that way before, but self-confidence is definitely very dependent on the opinions of others.

Another resounding quote that I heard was from Jonah, who when asked what kinds of people he wanted to surround himself with, responded by saying “I generally like surrounding myself with people who treat me nicely and make me feel like I’m worth their time. If they show me that I’m valued, then I’ll value them.” Jonah has a mentality of being who he wants to be, and not succumbing to the wants of others just to gain their approval. It was really cool hearing him talk about this, and it definitely got me thinking about similar things.

And finally, when I asked Ian if he felt valued by his friends, he said “Of course, we all care about each other and are there for one another. I couldn’t be happier with the friends I’ve made at Marquette.” This was really a great interview, considering me and Ian have been friends since Freshman year. The friend group that we formed was definitely one that will last.

In the end, what these interviews showed me is that trying to gain the approval of others’ is not a beneficial way to approach life, and that your self esteem isn’t dictated by anyone except for yourself. I also learned that I have some really great friends to be thankful for.

The first guy I asked took a minute to think about what he wanted to say, and then detailed a trip across the United States, making pit stops in different places to try new things (like skydiving, deep sea diving, etc.).

The second person I asked, a girl, thought that it would be appropriate to “bribe the aliens” to try and get them to not blow the planet up.

Then, I saw my friend Anna the same question, to which she answered “Probably try to travel to somewhere in Europe, or maybe South America.” Travel seemed to be a popular theme throughout.

Then, I ran into two of my other friends, Matt and Amanda. Amanda said that she would donate the money, because “what are you going to be able to do with $5 million in 2 days, right?” Matt then said that he would “…really upgrade all of my guitar equipment, and then donate the rest of it.”

As for me, I would probably go to Disneyland with my family one more time, and then donate the rest.