Brian, you did it! Welcome to the world on the other side of school. Ha ha. How does it feel?
It feels great to finally be putting an end to my college career. Even though I took longer than the average student I feel good about balancing school and skating and remaining dedicated to both.

What was your area of focus, and how long did it take you to get that paper? We realize (as everyone should) that you juggled your pro blade schedule against responsibilities of getting a degree — but we lost track of the timetable.
My degree is a bachelor’s in business, marketing to be exact. It took me about seven years to finally finish up with everything. During the course of college there would be some semesters when I decided that taking classes wasn’t an option with all my traveling. In the end I stuck it out and I couldn’t be happier to finally be done, for now anyway.

How hard was it to keep your head in both games?
It was very hard at times. Due to the fact that I’m so passionate at skating it was hard not to devote all my time and energy into it. There came a point when I realized that I could do both with no problem, it was just all about figuring out how to allocate the time I had so I wasn’t neglecting my studies or skating.

We noticed you didn’t go to Shanghai this year for Asian X-Games. Was that because of scheduling?
It was due to a few different reasons but the main reason had to do with the time that the X-Games was scheduled. It ended up landing on finals week, so instead of going to China and possibly putting my graduating in question I decided that it would be in my best interest to stay back and put an end to my seven year college career.

Despite the crimp it put in your globe-trotting schedule, was school a good experience for you? Would you recommend to other bladers?
I think education is, or should be, important to everyone in the world. Sometimes when you are so passionate about something it is hard to imagine doing anything else besides following your heart and your passion. In reality, there comes a point where every athlete in the world has to figure out what will be their next move. Though everyone has different goals and ambitions, school was one of the goals I had set for myself and I’m glad I achieved it, and ultimately I think it will be beneficial to my life in the future. School isn’t for everyone but I think education is beneficial to everyone.