Four-Ever

When I was four, I wanted to be a meteorologist and a Power Ranger. I also started kindergarten at that age. My life and all of its hopes and dreams began once I turned four.

When I first registered on Blogger, I was procrastinating on homework for my Public Relations class. I was sitting on my bed watching the Vancouver Olympics, laptop on my leg, and thinking about how I was going to get where I wanted to go. The day before, I had watched the film Julie & Julia. In the film, Julie Powell (portrayed by Amy Adams) took a passion--and somewhat of an obsession--and grabbed it by the horns. In one year, she took the entirety of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and wrote about her explorations on her Salon blog. It not only gave her media exposure, it spawned a book deal.

That night, I thought to myself: "How can I make myself a better writer?" With the classes I was taking at the time, I wasn't pleased with my progress in the least bit. I was hungry for more.

And The Sports Nut Blogs was born.

Of course, when I first started, I had absolutely no idea what the heck I was doing. What I originally started writing was about analysis of various sports articles I found on Twitter or different highlights of what was going on during the Vancouver Games. Needless to say, I'm at that point in my writing where I look at my first two months of posts and go: "Oh my God, this is freakin' terrible." I also ask myself how I had the time during my busy college schedule to sign onto Blogger three times in a day to write something. Here's the thing though--I don't have a problem in seeing that. That was how dedicated I was to start on my path.

Once summer rolled around, my posts started taking a turn, and my style was taking shape. Once December hit, my posts were gaining strength, and honestly, I don't cringe if I were to read them right now. A few weeks ago, I spoke with my friend Shaine Scalph of Martial Arts Movie Junkie about how we first started out and how much it hurts to read the material we wrote in the beginning. It was a fun night of laughing at each other, that was for sure.

If there is one thing I've learned in the four years I've written in this blog, it's that I've come a really long way from where I first started. What I did was daring, and I really needed work and improvement in something that I had grown a passion for. In fact, I am so dedicated to writing now that I have expanded my writing outside of sports. I have decided to make a strong effort to break into screenwriting. In my "About Me" section of the blog, I note how I was very much into theater in high school, and I did a lot of acting/producing in college. In fact, I still help with my college theater post-undergraduate. On this note, this does not mean that I've completely strayed from where I've started. While I love acting and the stage, sports were my very first love, and without it, I would never have had the passion and material to get this started. What would I have written about? Because of my love of sports, on top of my drive to express opinions and deliver information to an audience, I feel like a strong writer. Plus, for a person who had very low self-esteem for most of their life, this was the best thing to ever happen to me. I gained confidence in myself, in my ability. I've gotten recognition from my peers. In early January, I had the opportunity to work with Julian Brown and Brian Barrish of The Soccer Desk and write a guest column for them. I also took an opportunity to be an op-ed writer with them and help with production for The Soccer Desk Network (launching in early March). I couldn't be more thankful for where these four years have taken me. Grant it, they weren't always the best, but I've had support from so many people, and they always reminded me that I was worth it and that it was worth continuing the dream, no matter how far out of reach it seemed.

Whether you've been reading my work since the very beginning, or you stumbled across my blog a few months ago and liked it, I thank you for your support. I don't get a clear gauge of how many people visit my blog week in and week out, but I can always be assured that people are out there reading something that I have written. It's something I love to do, and even if it garners the smallest of reactions, I am still pleased. I take pride in this, and everyone is entitled to their opinions of things.

If I want to write for the rest of my life, whether it's about sports or something off of the top of my head, I need to keep going and getting better at what I do.

I guess all it takes is a little procrastination and a leap of faith to find yourself in the end. It might take some time, but life isn't a race. You have to enjoy the ride. That's what I like to think I'm doing now... :-)

--AZ