A Chip on My Shoulder - A Story of Myself

 I have always stride to be better my whole entire life, so hard work is nothing new to me. I was always the smallest kid growing up and I always fought despite my small stature. This mindset carried over to Ball State University where it had a reputation as one of the hardest, yet one of the best sports production programs in the nation. Adding on a journalism major later in my college career made my odds even greater. Yet here I am as senior at Ball State University, and still going strong.

  With Ball State Sports Link, it took me awhile to find a true passion, but I ended up loving a camera in my hand and filming the action that occurs so close to me. As I built up a passion for the camera, I also fell for writing and creating graphics. Although graphics were fairly new to me, I accepted the challenge and created graphics that Sports Link had not worked with before. Even with working on projects that I was not producing myself, I always found a way to make other projects better by giving notes as a common viewer. I value the ability of work with a team a lot and it has really helped both myself and my program a lot more. 

 The teamwork aspect has allowed me to produce some amazing content for both Sports Link and Ball State Football this past year. I was able to produce and lead Ball State's Swimming and Diving Media Day and work on their intro video which hadn't been done ever. Working with the Swimming and Diving team developed a sense of going outside of your comfort zone to produce something amazing. Even with my experiences this year with Ball State Football helped me go out of my comfort zone to shoot video in different ways that are more engaging and fun to film. It made me feel good about myself and my skills when I was able to produce or get a highlight that everyone enjoys. 

Overall, I loved my experiences with both Sports Link and Ball State Football, and I valued the teams I worked with along the way. It taught me that I can lead not by being the sole leader of a production, but by making everyone around me leaders and bouncing ideas from each other. Teamwork is a key value of mine and if no one is a true team than nothing can be accomplished.