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.