Two Years Ago

Two years ago (probably about this time of night) I was watching the National Finals Rodeo and got the crazy idea that maybe I could like the journalists reporting on the event. A few years earlier I had shocked my mom by telling her "maybe I should major in journalism" but never followed that thought.  I had also often jokingly said "If only I could use my useless knowledge of [sports] stats useful" but had never really thought that I could.

The NFR was the turning point of that and the 2010 Winter Olympics sealed the deal when I saw a local reporter actually reporting in Vancouver for the events. It took me a few months to figure out the whole how to be a sports journalist thing out with a lot of help from Google but by the time I decided I wanted to major in sports journalism, it was too late to change schools to a program that was exclusively sports related. Looking back on it now, I'm kind of happy I didn't change.

After I came to WT in the spring to register for some mass comm classes and visit the campus again, I somehow found Bleacher Report. I honestly can't remember how it happened but I quickly got into the roll of things there and that pushed me into other avenues.

The month before I came to WT, I was approached to write for a magazine called GX Magazine. It was short lived (I wrote from August to March, I believe) since it shut down in March but it was extremely awesome to get published and allowed me to go to the 2010 Breeders' Cup to write for them (unfortunately, they were falling apart by that time so I didn't get a press pass).

From there, things have kind of taken off with a sports job at our school's paper, an actual internship with Bleacher Report, the realization that I am also half way good at sports photography after working with the Eternal Flame, and the chance to be "press" at a huge event like the 2011 Breeders' Cup (long sentence much?). These are all things that I'll never forget (and am even looking at some of the pictures I've taken at all those events over the past few months that are hanging on my wall) and will help me in the future along with the teachers and connections I have made at school.

While I am toying with multiple sports related occupations (media relations, etc) when I graduate, I'm extremely happy I took that "silly" idea I had two years ago and ran with it because I really can't imagine doing anything else. So I guess once again, I can thank the rodeo industry for changing my life. It's funny how it has a way of doing that.