Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541687
14 DECEMBER 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED When I was with her, the world simply seemed to make more sense. Life felt easier, lighter, and suddenly, I had a new kind of purpose that had nothing to do with a football field. I remember the nerves bubbling up when I decided to tell my mother about this girl I'd met. My mom had seen me at my college peak of chasing women, and I was so unsure how she'd react to me fi- nally opening up to someone else. But my mom was great, just asking to see what she looked like, and then, in typical mom fashion, immediately invited her over for our new tradition of Pizza Fridays. It felt like a gentle, reassuring welcome into a part of my life I hadn't shared in so long. I quickly fell for her, faster and harder than I ever thought possible. Maybe it wasn't love at first sight, but it was quickly after that first meeting that I knew I loved her. I was falling for her quiet strength, her unwavering kindness and her in- fectious drive. It was her empathy, the way she could understand and connect, even when I was at my most difficult. And more than anything, it was the way she looked at me — not as the former athlete, but just as Trevor. She saw the man I was, and the man I was becoming, and loved him fully. Nina has been my absolute rock since the moment I met her. She is truly my best friend. We could sit around doing absolutely nothing, just enjoying each other's quiet company, or we could go out on a long bar crawl. It didn't matter what we were doing. As long as we were together, that's all we needed. That simple truth became the bedrock of my new existence. She became the constant, steady presence that anchored me when the world felt like it was spinning out of control. Nina challenges me every single day, and I wouldn't have it any other way. She pushes me to be a better man, to look at things from different perspectives, to expand my horizons beyond the narrow scope of my past. She helps me try and be a more empathetic person towards others, reminding me that the world is bigger than my own internal struggles. She has given me a profound sense of purpose outside of sports, a reason to strive and build that is entirely self- less. I do things for us now. I work to build a future that she deserves, a life filled with security and joy, and hon- estly, I just want to spoil her. Her calm- ing presence in my life is invaluable, a quiet strength that steadies my some- times turbulent mind. She is the great- est blessing I could have ever asked for. NAVIGATING THE BUSINESS WORLD Transitioning into the working world was another jarring shift. There's no spring ball, no training table, no perfectly orchestrated schedule designed to opti- mize your performance. It's just … work. And for someone who had a clear, mea- surable goal for so long — gain X pounds, lift Y weight, block Z defender — the ob- jectives in a corporate setting felt amor- phous. It wasn't about brute force or sheer size anymore; it was about navigat- ing personalities, understanding complex systems and, often, sitting behind a desk. I missed the physicality, the camara- derie of the locker room, the immediate feedback of a good block or a missed assignment. This new kind of grind felt different, less tangible. You don't get a standing ovation for closing a deal, and there's no coach telling you to eat more steak. It's a different kind of discipline, one I'm still learning to master, a dis- cipline that sometimes feels mundane compared to the high-stakes world of Division I football. Finding what I actually cared about in the professional landscape has been incredibly hard. For so long, the passion was pre-programmed: football. Now, it's like being dropped into a vast ocean and told to find treasure without a map. I've dipped my toes into sales roles, chasing quotas and commissions, which in a way, felt familiar — a clear objective, a scoreboard, a direct link between effort and outcome. But even in that, there's a difference. It's not the same kind of visceral reward as driving a D-lineman into the dirt. It's a job, and the shift from "living to play" to "working to live" has been profound. The dream isn't about the corner office anymore; it's about fi- nancial security, pure and simple. Ruhland said his wife, Nina, has given him "a profound sense of purpose outside of sports, a reason to strive and build that is entirely selfless." PHOTO COURTESY RUHLAND FAMILY