Sports photographer problems and awards!

I don't know if you know this, but I am a sports photographer. 

Of sorts. 

I do just about everything at my job, so it's hard to say I'm JUST a photographer. I'm a sports writer too, which is weird. I'm not much of a sports writer, but I digress. 

I had one of the weirdest nights of covering a basketball game ever. Here is my story: 

I had to cover a high school basketball game a few days ago, which isn't unusual. During the day, I charged our camera's flash batteries and the actual camera battery so I would be covered during the game. When 5:00 rolled around, I could have sworn that I grabbed the flash batteries and put them in the flash. 

But I was wrong. 

I grabbed the camera battery and put that in, but I left the four AA batters in the charger. 

Stupid move on my part. 

So I get to the game, thinking I have all charged batteries and - yay - I'm ready to go. 

Nope. 

I put the flash on my camera, turn it on. 

Nothing. 

A sense of panic fills me as I look in the battery thing, expecting to see four AA batteries in there. And I see nothing. 

Crap. 

So I open up the bag and grab our spare batteries, which haven't been charged for probably months, and crossing my fingers that they work. 

Again. Nope. 

They are completely dead. That's when I panic. Do I have to drive the 15 back home to get the batteries, then come back here? I'll miss half the game! As these panicked thoughts are running through my head, I take the spare batteries out. One falls from my hand in slow motion and I see it rolling across the gym floor. 

You know, where they're playing basketball. Luckily for me, they were on the other end of the court, so I race out to grab it before it rolls and further. And it felt like EVERYONE was staring at me. But they probably weren't. But that didn't make me feel any better. 

So, batteries back in the bag, now I have to solve my dilemma. My solution - go to the gas station across the street and buy batteries. GENIUS! 

I do that and miss the first quarter of the girls' game, but that's better than missing the whole game, which I'm sure I would have if I had gone back home. 

During the second quarter, I get hit by the ball. Nothing exciting, but it still made me mad. They have the whole freaking court to throw that thing, leave me out of it. 

The rest of the girls game is uneventful. Thank God. 

Now on to the boys. 

There was a moment in the game when I made eye contact with one of the players. It's awkward, yes, but it happens. I just ignore it and continue on. Well, this particular boy must have thought I looked like one of his teammates because he bounced the ball to me. Directly to me. Just standing there on the sidelines with a camera in my hand. And he passes the ball. To me. 

One of the players attempts to dive for the ball and lands at my feet. I still just stand there like, what in the world just happened. I look around and my dad's standing next to me. 

"Well, that was weird," he says. Yeah, dad, just a little bit. 

 It was the weirdest thing ever. There were no other players in my area that he could have meant to pass it to. But he passed it to me. Okay, strange. 

The crowning moment of the boys' game was in the fourth quarter. My team was down by a bunch and playing horribly, so I wasn't taking that many pictures. I was just watching the action, ready to take a picture at a moment's notice, when the ball comes flying in my direction. Hard. It came too quickly to react at all, or attempt to move, so I just stood there as it came hurdling at me. Well, it landed in the smallest of small spaces between myself and a cheerleader standing next to me. The space was probably just wide enough for a basketball, and not much bigger. 

If that ball would have it me, it would have hurt. A lot. 

And the whole crowds goes - ooooooooooooooo. I look around to see if a play happened that I missed, which there wouldn't be because I have the ball by me. Nope. Okay.. oh, they were making that noise at me. Grreeeaaat. I make eye contact with the cheerleader and we  both mentally agree that we just avoided a painful death. Or at least that's what I thought. 

Yeah so, that was certainly eventful. 

When I got back to the office that night to drop the camera off, I saw the four AA batteries sitting in the charger - mocking me. I wanted to throw them at the wall, but I didn't. Stupid batteries. 

--

More news - my coworkers and I leave for Des Moies in two days for our annual Iowa Newspaper Association Convention. It's going to be great! I'm up for two awards :) I'm pretty freaking nervous about it, and I'm sort of freaking out.. a little bit... a lotta bit. 

I'm up for an award for a series I did focusing on the reorganization of our two school districts. I'm also up for an award for a personality feature that I wrote. 

I'M SO DAMN EXCITED I CAN BARELY CONTAIN IT!!! 

Okay, that is all. 

Wish me luck! 

Clarity post rage

It's amazing what blogging can do.

I was so angry just a few hours ago, but being able to write out all my feelings on this blog made me feel so much better. Not good enough to call my mom and talk about it, but good enough to actually have a decent day today.

Like with a previous post. I wrote about a guy a liked in college, and the fact that I still liked him now. Well, after writing out all my feelings and confusion, I feel better about it. I've realized that the way I was feeling wasn't crazy (well, maybe a little) and now I think I'm finally over him. It's about time too, let me tell you.

So, blogging is healthy, I've decided. It's good for me and I'm glad I've finally found a way to get my feelings out. I know that no one reads this thing, so it's just a way for me to get things out without anyone judging me. Just me and my blog.

Back to High School

Meet my high school, a place I called home for six years.
From 6th to 12th grades, in this one building.
They were some of the best times of my life.

When I started my job at my hometown newspaper a year ago, I knew there'd be experiences that I would have to deal with when they came up.

It didn't cross my mind then, but one of those experiences turned out to be walking back into my high school after leaving it five years before.

I was assigned to go take pictures of the high school art show. Something pretty mundane, right? Well, it should be been.I remember walking into those front doors, into those hallowed hallways and was instantly brought back to the days when I was walking to class with my friends, not having a care in the world.

Remember those days? All I had to worry about was studying for my next Algebra exam and whether or not the boy in my Biology class ever noticed me.. which he didn't. I didn't have to think about bills, grocery shopping, rent or whether or not my milk was okay three days after it expired.. which it wasn't.

When we're kids, all we wanted to do is grow up, be an adult and just leave high school as fast as possible and onto something bigger and better. Now that we're adults, we think about going back. How we could redo things, relive our glory days and just be young again.

And every time I go to a high school event, which I do a lot, I look at those kids and think of the futures they have in front of them. Where are they going to go to college? What will their major be? Will they stay in touch with their high school friends as much as they promise to? Will they succeed? I was in their place once. I remember how terrifying it was, how unsure of yourself you are. Now that it's over and gone, I wish I could go back and relive some moments.  

I recently attended a high school boys track meet and it definitely brought back memories for me. For those of you who don't know, which you shouldn't, at my high school, my best friend and I were the boys track managers. Those track meets were some of the best times of my high school career. We had the best times on the bus, at the meets and during practice. Those moments are the ones I'd like to relive. Me and my best friend, together in the same town, having a blast and being carefree. We got to check out really cute guys and hang out with great track coaches.

When I was taking pictures of the recent track meet, I hunted those coaches down and it made me even more sad. They're still the same great guys and I really wanted to be part of that group again. I saw their current managers sitting in bleachers, like we used to, covered head to toe because it was freezing, and just having a blast. I wanted to be them again. I wanted to be in those bleachers. We were almost in that exact same spot six or seven years ago. We were those girls. But now we're not. We're grown ups.

I guess going to that track meet really made me reminisce. Being back in that high school, where I walked across that stage, accepted my diploma and was excited to get the hell outta dodge, really makes me miss being that age. I know that it was six years ago and there's no going back, but I know that I'll have the memories forever.

When I go back up to the school now, I just smile and think about the times I spent there. I see the kids walk through the halls and picture myself there, walking with my best friend to our lockers and talking about boys. Being young and carefree.

Though I love reminiscing, it's time for me to focus on the life I have in front of me. Though yes, it can be hard and stressful, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I say that I wish I could go back, but if given the opportunity, I really don't think I would. That time of my life is over and it's time to be in the here and now.

“Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up.”