The 2022 Senior Perspectives is the 17th in a series of annual collections. Senior captains and representatives of teams at Harvard have been invited to contribute viewpoints based on personal experience from both their senior seasons and full varsity careers at Harvard.

Lukus Stricker
Hometown: Rootstown, Ohio
Concentration: Applied Mathematics
House Affiliation: Kirkland

Even months after my career has come to an end, it's still difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that my time as a Harvard wrestler is over. 

It still feels like yesterday that I met coach Jay Weiss for the first time on my first visit, roughly six years ago. He told me about what his goal is every day he comes in to coach - to make better men. He told me that wrestling is a tool with which we can better handle life's adversities. He told me that the reason we do what we do isn't for glory or recognition, but to better prepare us for life.
 
One of the most popular quotes in the sport of wrestling is one from 3x NCAA champion Dan Gable, that goes "Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy." I think it would be much more accurate to say that everything else in life is easier. Life will give you challenges that are many times more difficult than those you'll experience on the mat. Wrestling doesn't make it easy to lose a loved one, it doesn't make it easy to be behind on rent and it doesn't make it easy to say goodbye to people and places that you've grown inherently fond of. Nothing could possibly make those things easy, but my hope is that with my experience in wrestling those things might be just a bit easier.
 
The Harvard wrestling team has been the single greatest organization I have ever been honored to be a member of. I was fortunate enough to enter Harvard with a support system that I wouldn't trade for the world, and they carried me through some of my lowest points as a young adult. More than anything, they never gave up on me, even when they may have had every reason to. I think that's what family truly is. The people in your life that simply won't quit on you, because they know all that you're capable of and won't let you give up on yourself. 
 
It's difficult to imagine what my life will look like now that my 17-year-long wrestling career is over, and I'm now leaving my family behind. However, I'm not really leaving them behind. I couldn't if I tried. My family will continue to grow as more and more Harvard wrestlers walk through the gates of this University and chase excellence. I'll forever look back on my time at Harvard with nothing but fond memories, but it's the pain that I endured alongside my family that makes those memories all the more sweet. 
 
While I may not be sure what life holds in store for me now that this chapter closes, I know that because I was a Harvard wrestler, those challenges should be just a little bit easier.