For the Love of the Game

Here we are, Valentine's Day, 2011. If you haven't gotten your significant other a gift by now, you're basically screwed, so you might as well save the money and accept the fact that you are going to die alone.

I kid.

Personally, I'm not in a position to really be giving much of a gift this Valentine's Day. I know what you're thinking: What girl isn't dying to be with a twig-like sports journalist who spends all his time trying to get followers on Twitter? (it's @jeremysharpie, by the way) The truth is... not many.

I've gotten over this fact many times, and who knows? I may have to again. But until then, I'm going to look at "a few of my favorite things" in the world of sports and writing that I love... and will never hurt me (haha).

First of all, let me just say that I love football. High school, college, pro: it's all good. Something I don't love is the fact that greedy owners and players not being able to come to an agreement on nickels and dimes (albeit, a LOT of nickels and dimes) may take the NFL away from me and countless other fans until further notice. Now THAT would break my heart.

I also love writing about sports. Just something about the informal formality of sports makes writing a feature piece so much more fun. I have more freedom to use the words that I like, and take the creative direction I want. There's nothing like it.

Something else that I'm finding I enjoy more and more is non-sports writing. I was brought in at The Sojourn to cover mostly athletics, but as opportunities pop up to write general news stories, I find that I like going outside of my comfort zone. The best part has been writing stories like the one about the line of natural fruit smoothies being banned and then a follow-up article about their return to the university.

What else? I absolutely love going to sporting events here at Indiana Wesleyan University. Sure, it's not Tennessee or Florida or Ohio State, but there's still nothing like the sight and sound of the student body coming together and cheering for our fellow classmates, while verbally ripping the competition to tiny little pieces.

It doesn't get much better than this when it comes to life as an undergraduate sports journalist. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Because I really do love it.