It' always darkest before the dawn

The moment I stepped on the campus as UMBC I knew that my main goal was to write for the campus newspaper. My dream was to be a professional sports writer and this was my chance to practice it. I always loved sports. I always liked talking about them. This was my chance to take a big step during my dream. But I knew there would be challenges. I’ve never writen for a newspaper before. I wrote for my high school paper just one year and it was more of a quartely flier than a newspaper. Weekly deadlines, interviewing, word counts, it was all so new to me, but I was determined to at least give it a shot.

When I went to my first meeting there was already one issue of the paper out, meaning assignments had already been given out and I was there to just take what ever was left. I went in wanting to write men’s soccer. I’ve known the coach my whole life and wanted to write for his team, but that wasn’t an option. My choices were to leave or cover a women’s soccer team who did not even win a game the season before. Though I was very tempted to just walk away bcause at that point the sport of soccer was still new to me, I took the assignment just to get on the paper and figured that maybe by my senior year I could move up.

I was miserable. The team just did not play well, I was forced to sit and watch a team get shut out twice a week, and I had to write 700 words on a game that nothing happened in. Was this what I was going to have to do every day after I graduated? I started to think this sports writing gig is not all it’s cracked up to be. I came close to quitting a few times but every time I did something prevented me from speaking, possibly my brain telling me I’m going to have to work my way up before I cover anything big.

Well, it turned out that things went a lot faster for me after I stuck it out. My next three teams to cover were the men’s basketball team, who nobody wanted because they had a bad losing tradition, baseball, who nobody wanted for the same reason, and men’s lacrosse, who nobody else wanted because they lost a lot of talent and were expected to do poorly. But as it turned out the basketball and lacrosse teams each won a conference tournament and the baseball team had their best season in 10 years. I was promoted to head sports writer, received a significant pay raise, and I was well known by everybody in the athletic department because not only want I working hard to cover the sports (during march I wrote eight articles a wek because the seasons were overlapping and I had to cover basketball, men’s lacrosse, baseball, track and field, and several features that went with those articles) but I was getting great experience in writing and then was granted men’s soccer the following year.

Now, I’m thrilled, having fun, writing what I enjoy.

The Point: You have to work your way up and do things you do not enjoy before you you dreams can come true.