Out of my Comfort Zone

During high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was I was going to college but knew nothing beyond that. Sports had always been a part of my life between watching them on tv or in person and playing them. Coming from a racing family,racing has always been my favorite sport so I always looked forward to reading articles in the local newspaper. The beginning of the racing season last summer I noticed that there was no one writing anything about the weekly races at Oxford Plains Speedway. I complained every week to my mom before finally taking a huge step and emailed the editor of the paper.

At first I just wanted to know why no one was writing anything but soon I found myself volunteering to write them. As soon as I sent the email I was so scared I was going to get automatically rejected because what did I know about writing articles, I was just a 19 year old community college student. In that moment all I was thinking about was how much I loved racing not whether or not I could actually do the job. To my surprise she was intrigued and wanted a sample writing. So off the top of my head I wrote what had happened the previous week at the races. The next week I met with the editor and got the job on the spot. I was shocked to say the least, I got to do something really fun and get paid for it! In high school I would have never stepped out of my comfort zone like that. I was always the shy girl afraid to speak out about anything because I didn't want to be judged by my teachers and peers. This being my first job I was so afraid I was going to mess up luckily I had a fellow racing sports writer Phil Whipple, willing to take me under his wing when I first starting writing.

It was crazy having sport writers I admired, Phil Whipple and Kalle Oakes encouraging me and helping me along the way. I can remember before even thinking about taking upon the job how much I loved reading their articles and I hoped someone would love mine too. My family were all so happy for me that I had found something I really enjoyed doing and proud that I got the job.
One thing that separated me from the rest of the writers at the track was I didn't sit in the sky box.

When I first met Phil he invited me to sit up in the box with the other professionals. I felt weird and out of place up there. I felt so disconnected from what was happening on the track. Sitting in the stands I can feel what all of the fans are feeling and I get a sort of adrenaline rush being able to hear the sounds of the action on the track. I know if I ever want to be a professional sportswriter i'll have to make my way back up to that box, but i'm not quite ready to let go of the fan perspective yet.

Sometimes feeling how everyone else is feeling while writing an article is not a good thing. Late in the season there was an incident on the track involving a family member and someone I lived next door to most of my life. Everyone around me was upset and I'm i'm not going to deny that I was too. As soon as it happened I dreaded how I was going to write my article because no matter how I wrote it I knew someone would find something wrong with what I said about the incident. When I agreed to take on this job I didn't mention the fact that there were family members in the top division because why would it matter? Yeah my family are my favorite drivers but if I wanted to praise them I would of just wrote weekly Facebook posts. I was in such a tight spot because the other driver was actually someone I always looked up to and I knew his family,I didn't want to say anything that would make anyone upset. I almost felt like I could relate to him we were both in our rookie seasons and had many people to make proud. The whole week following the complaint of my article I was so nervous I wasn't going to be allowed to write anymore. What started out as something that was a fun thing to do quickly became something I didn't want to lose. Looking back I would have never made the mistake in adding the emotions of the moment in the article. It was my rookie mistake. I love my family and I love racing while writing the articles they are not one in the same.

Besides the one bump in the road my first summer of writing was an amazing experience, seeing one of my favorite things from a totally different perspective. Writing comes naturally for me which took me by surprise. I'm constantly thinking about writing and reading articles. I've always loved reading but now I find myself thinking more about the process of how a story or piece is written. Racing is a family thing everyone in my family is pretty much obsessed with it so i'm fairly knowledgeable on the subject. Writing about racing is easy but eventually I want a challenge.

Last winter I happened upon a hockey movie on Netflix called,Goon.Though the movie's main focus is on hockey fights and enforcers I soon found myself obsessed with the sport. I would spend hours on google looking up teams and players but what solidified my love for hockey was the 2015 Road to Winter Classic with the Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals. Seeing how much passion the guys had for the sport and the way the teams were like families had me hooked. Soon after I started watching every game I could find on TV.

Watching games and reading what others had to say about stuff on social media was great,but for me it wasn't enough. I wanted to absorb all the information I could about this sport that I was still learning about. That's where The Hockey News Magazine comes in. I fell in love with the magazine reading it from cover to cover after getting a new issue. Every time I read an article published by the Hockey News I just think wow I hope I can write this good someday! I was pretty much born with information about racing embedded in my head but this sport was a whole new exciting sport to me. It's almost embarrassing how much I find myself geeking out while reading the magazine. I hope to be knowledgeable enough in the near future to write a hockey article but the dream would be able to see a story I wrote in the Hockey News.

I still have a lot to learn in the journalism world, so for now I'm just a racing and hockey obsessed community college student, who's work can only be found in the local sports section of the Advertiser Democrat during the summer.