By Lexey Burns 

Moving away to school is difficult, but many students are willing to take that jump to experience their first real taste of independence. For Jacob Brothers, that move away from home was farther than most.

Jacob moved to Sudbury, Ontario from Auckland, New Zealand to study Business Administration. What makes him different than other international students at Laurentian? Jacob was drafted to the LU Varsity Baseball team in February of 2019 after being scouted at a baseball tournament in Arizona, USA.

“Baseball is fun,” he said. “It’s an incredible brotherhood.”

“I used to play softball and after, I worked as an ump for my little brother’s baseball team,” he said.

“They’re relatively the same, softball and baseball, and then the club manager asked me to play for the Under 16 team.”

Brothers then went on to play in the Under-19 team, and was then scouted by Laurentian’s baseball coach.

“It’s hard,” he said, talking about his family back home. “Some do [support me], some don’t. My mom believes that the cost is too much for the reward, when I can get the same education back home. My dad supports me fully, ever since I was little.”

He also struggles with homesickness and is very excited to go home over winter break.

Brothers says time management is key to balancing school work with playing on a varsity team, which he says he does by “utilizing time in classes and in small gaps [between] the baseball schedule to study, which includes studying on the bus and in hotels.”

Brothers says living in Canada is a lot different than living in New Zealand.

“Everything is a lot bigger, like malls, schools and trucks,” he said. “There’s also more opportunities to play sports professionally outside of university.”

“But I miss the ocean a lot. Your lakes aren’t the same, you know?”

While Brothers misses the ocean, his family and friends, he says he also misses RARO.

“RARO is this drink,” he adds. “Kind of like Kool Aid.”

Everyone who has moved away to school has struggles with homesickness every once in a while. Brothers said he has overcome his struggles by pursuing his own personal goals.

He said he has enjoyed his time at Laurentian so far and hopes the life lessons he’s learned at Laurentian will stick with him for the rest of his life.