A Week of Opportunity

Wow, the last week has been a whirlwind of activity. From sports to high profile speakers, I feel like I've been around the world without leaving Canyon.

The fun started last Tuesday when I went to one of the final softball home games of the season. To say it was a blowout would be an understatement as our girls scored 15 runs in the third inning and won the game 20-0. 

Less than 48 hours later, I went to the last spring season game of women's soccer and watched them play while doing what I've done best this year, taking pictures. 

The women started a weekend of sports as I spent the next night at Lady Buff Yard for a softball double header. The double header didn't see me leaving the Yard until 10:30pm after I did interviews and such. Only 14 hours later, I was back at the Yard for the final home game of the season and Senior Day. Saying goodbye to the Lady Buffs graduating was harder than imagined as I related to them since I will be leaving here in just 14 days.

After interviews were done, I did something I never thought I would do and broke down. But then I realized that even though this may be the end of my undergraduate career and the end of covering WT sports, I have many bigger and better things ahead.

Even though the softball season is technically over, I won't have a break as I am covering them from afar (aka they'll be in Denton, Tx and I'll be here) this coming weekend at the Lone Star Conference tournament. 

On Sunday, I covered my last men's soccer game, taking pictures of the 90 minute game. The irony of men's soccer being the end to my year after being the first home sporting event I went to didn't escape me. But it seemed to be a fitting end as soccer is by far the sport I've gotten most attached to this year.

Even though I still have one article to write, I feel like I've pretty much ended my career in the sports and it's been a ride I would never take back. The opportunities I've had this year due to them, and the friends I've made, are memories I'll remember forever

But sports weren't the only exciting opportunity for me this week. While the weekend was busy, the last two days have been insane.

When I was little, I was obsessed with the Titanic. History has always fascinated me and the massive "unsinkable" ship grabbed my attention. So when I heard the man that discovered the wreckage was coming to WT, I jumped on the opportunity to go listen to him speak. 

But even better than that was when I was asked by Eternal Flame to take pictures of the event. If you don't know, even when there's not an official press pass, if you have a notebook and a camera most official people will let you go in places not normally allowed.

So with camera in hand, I made my way up to the steps of the stage and they let myself and my two other friends sit on the steps while they had other students that had lined up around us move to different places. Because of this, I was only about 3 feet from Dr. Robert Ballard while he spoke. This gave me some awesome opportunities to not only take pictures but really absorb all the information he threw at us. 

Dr. Robert Ballard during his speech.

While he didn't talk much about the Titanic, his other discoveries were just as cool. The overall presentation was pretty awesome and was a great start to the week.

My week "finally" ended on Tuesday night with the best event of the week for me (no offense to my sports!). Last Wednesday, I had gotten a text from the Eternal Flame editor (I'm starting to see a theme here) asking what I was doing on Tuesday night. It just so happened that she had a press pass for Bill Clinton and she was wondering if I wanted to go take pictures again. 

While the press area wasn't exactly what I was expecting, thanks to my ubber cool zoom lens (I seriously love that thing), I was able to get some awesome pictures of the president from about mid court where the press box was set up. Unfortunately due to time constraints, we didn't get to interview him (the speech went for an hour and a half, when it was reported it would be under an hour) but just seeing the president and being part of the press was an amazing experience. Of all the things I've experienced in my time here at WT, and even in my life, this will go down as one of the best.

Bill Clinton

In only 17 days, I leave the panhandle pretty much forever unless something happens (except for visits) to move on to new adventures and I have learned a lot and had a ton of good times. But with all the experiences I've had, my undergraduate career saved the best for last and it's definitely a week I'll never forget.

Until next time,

Mel

Opportunity Awaits

Wow, it's been a long time since I came to my blog. I guess I can blame my busy month for that. In March, I was only in Canyon a total of 12 days. The first part of it was due to a two week spring break but the second part was due to work.

Almost exactly a week after I got back from Spring Break, I repacked (okay, that's a lie, I never unpacked, just kind of threw clothes everywhere to condense everything into a smaller bag) and loaded into a van with a bunch of the paper people for a trip to Corpus Christi to compete at a paper conference.

While a weekend at the beach was amazing, and I had one full day of nothing but beach time, I didn't do too hot at the actual onsite competition. However, one of the handful of my pictures our yearbook submitted did get second in the Sports Action Photo division and that led me to think of how lucky I've been this year.

First of all, I started rocking the boat at both The Prairie and Eternal Flame. But it was November that really got me rolling. I literally started the month in Kentucky and enjoyed opportunities I never would have dreamed of even last year. Not only did I get to visit some of the best farms in the nation, if not the world, I also got to go "behind the scenes" at Churchill by watching works from the gap and got to enjoy time in the press box between races at the Breeders' Cup. That was literally the best week of my life and made decisions for me that I never really even realized I had.

This was followed by one of my big time projects going to regionals in the National Broadcasting Society and actually winning the division. This was even more of a big deal because it was an audio package, something that I've never even experimented with before I put this together.

This was followed a month later by winning Staff Member of the Semester for Eternal Flame.

But even though I had a lot of success at school, my biggest moments of the (school) year have come from those in the racing industry.

After the Breeders' Cup, I got more involved in the industry when it came to talking to others and this opened up a whole new world for me in the last few months. While I already have the USEF internship and am not making any moves until I figure that out and see what comes after, I was given some leads on racing journalism jobs.

I also got more "prominent" in the journalism thing and was told about media teleconferences and such (one that I did today). I even was given a chance to interview Steve Asmussen about one of his Derby potentials.

While I am set for the next six months or so of my life, I do have some questions about where I'll go after then. But looking at everything I've experienced the last few months... life is about to become just a little more clearer when it comes to ideas in 2013.