Foreign Dude Fulfills His Dream Of Going To UNC Like His Idol Michael Jordan...Accidentally Enrolls At UNC-Greensboro, Spends 4 Years There Instead

FOX – An Australian man’s dream was to attend UNC. He was inspired by Michael Jordan. Turns out, he went to the wrong college for four years.

James Dator recently shared his experience on Sbnation.com. He says it’s important to not pick a university based on sports when you’re coming from halfway around the globe.

Dator said in the article that it was always his dream to go to North Carolina. But he ended up going to UNC-Greensboro on accident, thinking it was UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dator said he was surprised at the campus’ lack of Carolina blue colors during orientation – but he didn’t seem to think anything of it at the time.

He also writes that he was disappointed by UNCG’s mediocre basketball team. But in the end, he said that UNCG is an amazing school with an excellent English program.

I spent 4 years of my life at the wrong college thanks to Michael Jordan - By James Dator

Ok the title of this FOX and SBNation story is kind of misleading, makes it seem like this guy spent 4 years at UNC-Greensboro before figuring out it was not, in fact, UNC Chapel Hill.  Which would of course be a totally fake story, I don’t care how dumb you are, that’s just frankly not humanly possible.  But it turns out he figured it out at Orientation, then decided to just stay there. Muchhhh more believable.  Foreigners doing foreigner things.

I’m sitting in this huge lecture hall with 1,000 other kids all trying to look cool and absolutely not like freshmen.

The Powerpoint slide flips to “Campus Life,” and I’m sure it’s here where we’ll hear about athletics. I’m wondering if there’s a shuttle bus to Chapel Hill each weekend. There’s probably a bus; that way we can get to and from the games if we’re living on campus. Suddenly this pops up on the screen:

My immediate reactions wasn’t a “what the hell is this?” feeling, it was a “holy shit, no way” feeling. The presenter’s voice stops sounding like words and becomes tinnitus, a high-pitched drone in my ears where I make out only every third word or so. I hear “basketball,” “gym” and “2001 NCAA Tournament.” My stomach sinks like I’m riding a roller coaster, a lump wells in my throat the same way as when I was 12.

I’m not going to be a Tar Heel. I’ll never get to see the next Vince Carter or Rasheed Wallace play for my school. I wouldn’t sit in the student section of the Dean Dome, or mock Duke the way a Chapel Hill student should. Suddenly I’m trying to work out ways to get out of this. There’s still time to change schools … right? I know the answer. Financial aid has been filed, I’m locked in … a transfer is unlikely. This is it.  [James Dator]

Hilarious.  Guess I just don’t really get how this happened?  Like, at all.  I mean you speak English right?  You’re Australian.  And your dad was a New Yorker.  So even with your explanation I have no idea how not a single person pointed this out to you.

Being raised in Australia I had aspirations of coming to the USA for college. North Carolina was the obvious choice. My dad (a New Yorker by birth) lived in the area for some time. I was raised on UNC sports from the other side of the globe, and Michael Jordan was my favorite athlete growing up.

Sending college applications from Australia is hard enough, but I had it down pat. I heard some campuses were easier to get into than others, but did that really matter? I just wanted to attend “The University of North Carolina,” so who cared if I was taking classes in Chapel Hill, Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte or Wilmington? I’d be a Tar Heel.

It’s cool though, Michael Jordan probably visited the Greensboro Campus at least once right?  Maybe?  Kind of the same thing.