Where do you see yourself in ten years?
It's a stereotypical question that every college student will hear. For most, the answer is relatively simple; married with kids, a lawyer or a doctor, involved in international business or possibly back at USC teaching. For most, the future will play out much like it is predicted to, you will go to graduate school, you will get married, you will accomplish your goals.
However, for some, something different will happen, something will drastically change. For some of our fellow students, the future will involve being blindsided on some idle Wednesday afternoon with something they did not see coming.
Such was the case for former USC student 33 year old Brian Shah. In the early months of 2008 doctors gave Shah some very alarming news. He was told that he had Lou Gehrig's Disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks muscles. No one has ever lived through the disease, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In fact, the average life expectancy is a mere two to four years.
Shah, who graduated in 1998, is the youngest known case of ALS in the United States. Separated by a short decade from his time at USC Shah is slowly but surely losing control of his muscles. ALS eventually leads to such a severe paralysis that the victim can no longer breathe.
"It's been very hard to watch a friend lose control of his body," USC and Sigma Nu alumni Robert Darr said. "Brian is a great guy, who was always been full of energy and humor."
In his time at USC Shah was a bright young student with a passion for his fraternity, Sigma Nu. Within that passion was a passion for one of Sigma Nu's best-known traditions, the Game Ball Run. The Friday prior to the Carolina/Clemson game the fraternity brothers from the opposing schools would run the game ball for the big game from one school to the other, a 128-mile journey.
The Sigma Nu brothers did this in support of multiple sclerosis (MS). Over the years, due to the Game Ball Run, Sigma Nu donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to MS research. This year was set to be a repeat of the previous decades' performances, until the current Sigma Nu brothers caught wind of Shah's situation.
"We decided it would be best to help him out in any way possible," fifth year accounting and management major Jimmy Lekovich said. "So we set a goal of $100,000 this year. We want to give the $30,000-$40,000 that we usually give to MS and we want to give the rest to Brian to help him out."
In economic times such as these, Shah, who can no longer work and struggles to speak, could certainly use the extra money. He and his wife, Ashley, are staring down the piling medical bills associated with ALS, nearly $200,000 a year. However, there is more to the run than just an economic boost for Shah.
"This gives Brian something to be excited about," Lekovich said. "He's getting to be around us, he's getting to be around his best friends, doing something he remembers doing and used to love doing back when he was a student. Hopefully that's something that he can come out and, just like old times, run it with his friends."
Due to the enormous alumni response to Shah's disease, the current Sigma Nu brothers decided to allow alumni to run for the first time. Although ALS has taken most of Shah's motor skills away, he will be carrying the ball for the first mile of the trip. He is restricted to a wheelchair but he wouldn't miss his chance to be one of the first alumni to carry the ball in the run that now bears his name.
"He came to chapter and spoke," Lekovich said. "He tried to tell as much as he could about himself and it was pretty tough. It makes you think when you see something like that, especially one of your own brothers."
It did not take much longer for the Sigma Nu brothers to decide that Shah was worthy of the honor of renaming the run. Not only did the brothers move to change the name to The Brian Shah Game Ball Run but they also resolved to make the run a bigger deal then it had ever been before.
"We've never really taken Game Ball Run to this level," Lekovich said. "We've got a Web site this year, we've never done anything like this in the past ten years. This used to be a lot bigger back in the day but it's kind of fallen off. So we're trying to bring it back to where it was."
A man that was not any different than each of them ten years ago has inspired the brothers at Sigma Nu. Shah once walked this campus just as they each walk this campus and seeing him in peril motivated them to do something extraordinary. They took one of the bigger philanthropy events at USC and made it even bigger.
"In my four years in the fraternity I think this is one of the biggest steps that we've made to grow as a fraternity and as a brotherhood," Lekovich said. "I think it's unfortunate circumstances but I think if Shah stepped back and knew the scope of what he was doing for our fraternity and for this event, I think he would be happy."
There is no doubt that Brian Shah is not where he planned on being ten years ago. There is no doubt that the brothers at Sigma Nu are not where they planned on being even ten months ago. However, this afternoon, they will join together as brothers, current and old, will walk behind Shah during the first mile of The Brian Shah Game Ball Run.
Even though this step was not included in anyone's ten year plan, specifically Shah's, it's safe to say everyone can agree that, now that it's here and it can't be changed, this is the best way that it could have unfolded.
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