Joe Battista
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All’s Well That Ends Well
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Most of us have at one time in our life or another started a project, a class, a sporting event or a job “on the wrong foot” but finished strong and the positive ending was all that mattered. You probably know the adage “All’s well that ends well” and you may even know that it’s…
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Just Don’t Be a Jerk
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“Life is short. People are hurting. Don’t be a jerk.” – John Pavlovitz I want you to picture the following scenario. I bet many of you can relate. I will call it “the gas pump jerks” for the purposes of this column. They pump their gas and leave their cars at the pump while they…
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It’s Transition Time: Embrace It!
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Excitement. Anxiety. Laughter. Panic. Old friends. New friends. Stress. School shopping. Frantic schedules. New teachers. Music lessons. Sport practices. New teammates. Buying books. Finding Classrooms. Drop/Add. Ah, the emotions of the transition to a new academic year, whether K-12 or college. Late August and early September have always been a time of a “natural” transition…
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Sights That Leave Everlasting Impressions
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“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,Where the deer and the antelope play,Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,And the skies are not cloudy all day.” -From “Home on the Range” the unofficial anthem of the American cowboy written in 1872. Looking westward, I could see the snowcapped majestic Sawtooth mountains off in…
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The Courage to Get Things Done
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Courage. It has been on my mind a lot lately. So many critics out there, so many people who are great at being a part of the problem but don’t have the courage to be part of the solution. Why? Because it’s easier to talk a big game than to actually make a difference by…
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The American Idea Is Still Worth Fighting For
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“We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” – Abraham Lincoln December 1, 1862 Oh well, I took the bait. I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I admit it. Why? Because if the vast majority of Americans who still love this country, flaws and all, stay silent about…
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Happy Memories in Happy Valley
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“Look upon this moment. Savor it. Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! …For it is the doom of men that they forget.” – Merlin to King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, “Excalibur” (1981) A few weeks ago, I wrote a column titled “Another Trip Down Memory Lane” in which I discussed the pending…
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La Famiglia: The Trip of a Lifetime to Italy
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In the fall of 2019, our family made the decision to go on the proverbial “trip of a lifetime” to travel with my then 82-year-old mother Angela (Carolis) Battista to visit Italy in May of 2020. My wife, Heidi, and our three adult children would travel with us and their “Mee-Maw” who could still speak…
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Saving College Athletics, Part 2
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Name, Image and Likeness — NIL as it is commonly referred to in the college sports world — and it’s evil twin, the transfer portal, have become the scourge of coaches and athletic administrators everywhere. NIL was billed as a positive mechanism for helping put money in student-athletes pockets and for evening out the playing…
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Another Trip Down Memory Lane
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Ah, the memories. They’ve had a little more meaning for my wife and me lately. With each passing week the reality is setting in that in just a few months State College will no longer be our primary place of residency. We have called Happy Valley our home for the last 35 years and moving…