Taking a Look Back

I've been blessed throughout my life. My parents put me through college once and are again helping me for the second time. I've had amazing support from so many angles -- family, friends, teachers and strangers -- that it's almost surreal.

The opportunities extended to this past year when I started working for the Western Herald. I was hired on towards the beginning of March 2008, right before the spring semester ended. I had no experience writing for newspapers and writing sports. It was almost like landing in a foreign country where I don't speak the language. I was definitely excited, but nervous at the same time.

I wrote just one article before the end of the Spring 2008 school year, but I was patient and knew that if I stuck around, I would be able to wrote more frequently during the summer and possible thereafter (most of the staff last year graduated).

I contacted the new sports editor as the summer semester started at WMU and because I was the only returning member of the staff -- even though I had produced just one article -- I was one of main writers. We had few writers during last summer -- I think three, but it was a blessing in disguise. I was given opportunities to write early and often and wrote stories on a variety of topics all summer-long.

Towards the end of the summer, I was offered by Mike to tackle the football beat in the fall. It wasn't really what I expected, but I was excited to be given such a great opportunity once again. WMU football, like at so many other schools, is kind of a big deal and 2008 was no exception. The Broncos had one of their best seasons ever in school history capped off with a trip to the Texas Bowl in Houston, Texas.

My fingers were punching buttons often during the fall and my head was a constant encyclopedia for WMU football. It was a lot of fun and again, the opportunity was amazing. I'm thankful for being able to write about the football team and even to travel to Texas Bowl and get some great experience covering a "big-time" game.

After football season was sadly over, I started covering the WMU hockey beat for the Herald. Another great opportunity. Even though the hockey team has had "one of those seasons," I've been able to greet head-on the challenge of writing stories about a struggling team. It was a complete 180 from football and I'm kind of thankful for that. Nothing should be easy and covering hockey certainly has been anything but that. They've recently turned around their fortune, but remain mired at the bottom of the CCHA standings.

I'm thankful to Mike to putting so much faith behind me this year. The Herald has been a great place to work and even though I don't realize it, I've probably grown ten-fold in the last year. I know that I have much to improve on and that includes making the giant leap from writing for a college newspaper to one that isn't.

I'm hopeful that the experiences I have learned will guide me in my transition to the real world. Copy editing has been a blessing as well as I've really learned a lot about how a paper is put together and I've been through the journalism bible (AP Style book) many times. I'm still fairly new at my position there, but each day seems to be better.

Another great experience was being able to talk with some of the Detroit Tigers - my idols. There I was, up close and personal, with players I usually root for, ask autographs for. This time I was standing there with a recorder in my hand and questions rattling in my head. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, although having Mike there next to me asking questions as well was very helpful. Interviewing Brandon Inge, Fernando Rodney (among others) will certainly be something that helps me down the road. Interviewing college athletes (most of them younger than me) is one thing, but interviewing professionals who get paid millions of dollars and hold a certain swagger to them is another.

I've only got a few months left at the Herald and it's been a thrilling ride. Met some cool people and earned some necessary experience in the process. Hope what I've learned, wrote and breathed in in the past year will all help me find the job I'm looking for next year.

Another opportunity. I'm excited.

Conan's Big Night

Sad night tonight. It's pretty safe to say that I'm an avid Late Night with Conan O'Brien fan. Tonight is his last episode until he takes over Jay's slot this summer. I'm looking forward to seeing him in that spot, but I know many of the crazy, hilarious things he does on his current show he won't be able to do in prime time. Oh well. This week has been a great week of highlights and clips from shows past. Tonight, he should go out with a bang.

That is pretty much the highlight of the weekend for me. The Oscars are Sunday night which I'm looking forward to. I've got a meeting at the Herald Sunday, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The hockey team traveled north this weekend to battle Lake Superior State - where I used to go to so many games as a kid. They have just two weekends left before playoffs and are fighting for one of the last home playoff spots so this weekend is very significant for them. Two victories would be ideal. The Broncos had a semi-successful weekend against a tough Alaska team, so hopefully that will help them against a poor LSSU squad.

My Grandpa is still very sick. Doesn't look like he's going to be improving much and the doctors have told my Grandma and parents that "they'll do everything to make him comfortable." Yikes. I know he's in a lot of pain and he's also been very angry at the nurses and staff at the hospital. Hopefully all his pain ends one of these nights as he sleeps. I know it's ultimately what he wants. I hate seeing him in such pain.

Looking forward to spring break, which begins for me next Thursday. Hopefully going to get some time to head up to Harbor Springs and then I'm definitely heading to Detroit the second weekend for a Pistons game and other craziness. It's always nice to cut the semester in half and give the mind a break. I've got some pretty large midterms after spring break, so hopefully I won't completely slow down my brain.

Two months to graduation and the scariness that is finding a real job! Part of this weekend is dedicated to officially finding myself a job or internship.

Hockey Cares Weekend

Bronco hockey is involved in its second annual "Hockey Cares" weekend this coming weekend. This weekend is designed to help celebrate cancer awareness with the American Cancer Society. The WMU players will be wearing pink jerseys and using pink tape this weekend. They are also going to have pink laces on the skates and pink stickers on their helmets. It should be interesting to say the least. They are handing out pink shirts for the students, so the whole place should be pretty festive for Valentine's Day on Saturday. I wrote an article this week about some of our hockey players who are from different parts of the country. It's cool that Culhane has brought in people from all over the place to play hockey here in Kalamazoo.

I'm finally starting to feel better. Still have a semi-serious cough, but with some sleep this weekend, I think I'll be able to kick it out of me. I'm looking forward to finally getting rid of this two-week sickness.

Valentine's Day this weekend. Big deal. I've never been one to celebrate it and am not starting this year! One of these years I'm sure I'll start when I'm given an opportunity to celebrate it. But at the moment, I'm content saving money and not buying flowers and chocolates. I remember back in the college hey-day when we used to revolt against V-Day and we would party and forget there was even a holiday that day. Good times.

Hope everyone is staying away from sickness. This round certainly did me in. Looking forward to being healthy for a very long time now. I'm off to take a nap. Hopefully I'll be doing a lot of that this weekend and I have no reason not to. See everyone later.

By the way, spring training begins in less than one day! Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow! Hooray!

Trying to Survive

Somehow, I'm still sick. Whenever I get the flu, I get really sick. This was the case again this time. I slept just about all weekend and drank a lot of liquids and somehow I'm still sick. I feel better though and think that I'm finally coming out of the woods. Hopefully by tomorrow or the next day I'll be fine, but if not I'm taking my business to the doctor's. This is getting a little ridiculous.

The hockey team played brilliantly this weekend in Nebraska, beating a pretty good Omaha team that is above WMU in the CCHA standings. They didn't move up in the standings, but they're going to most likely have to go on the road and defeat a pretty good team in the playoffs and they did that this weekend - twice.

I have a test tomorrow and a big article due Thursday in one of my classes, so the semester is starting to heat up a little bit. No complaints since I only have three classes, but the classes I do have are tough. Western is not letting me go without a fight.

Here's my take on the whole A-Rod steroid situation: Thank God it's over. I'm sooooo tired of all the steroid stuff and I'm glad that he came out and admitted to using them. Hopefully everyone can just move on and let him play baseball. It's just cool that he was honest about it and he didn't have to live a life of lies for the rest of his playing days. Yes, what he did was wrong. I'm not saying that it wasn't. But he is a great player regardless and what he's done with the Yankees when he has been clean proves that. He's still a Hall-of-Famer in my book.

Three days until spring training begins! Someone's excited - this guy. I just read today that all 162 Tiger games will be on TV again this season. Hopefully the Tigers will give fans a reason to watch all 162 games this year, unlike last season... if not, it could be a long summer...