My new position as Sports Editor

Hello everyone, and welcome to Crystal Sideline Buzz. Today, I will be discussing my position as a Sports Editor for my College newspaper.

Starting as a sports writer

In June of 2024, I started off as a sports writer for the MATC Times newspaper, and from the jump, I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to write about. Obviously, my writing needed improvement, and even though I was frustrated with myself at times when it came to my editor's editing my articles, I still try to be better. As time went on, I had at least two articles published back-to-back, and I felt as if I was on cloud nine with all of my hard work during the fall semester. But then, as time went on, things started to slow down, mainly the ideas, the writing was still good, and interviews went very well, some through via email while others preferred in person. Being the only sports writer can be very difficult at times, especially when it comes to running out of ideas. There are times when I ask my advisor and editors if they have any ideas, and I would have to email the coordinator in the athletic department if anything was happening, and the assistant athletic director himself as well. But overall, I am not complaining because I do love working by myself, and if I do ask for any help, it's my advisor or editors editing my article, or just finding my photographer to get some great snapshots of something that I need. 

Losing but finding inspiration again 

I'll admit, there was a time when I lost inspiration in my writing and became very creative, you could easily tell by the way I just started typing my articles, and the attention getter in the beginning was not getting anyone's attention, just boring. The spark in my creativity started to die down because there was so much going on in my life, and the amount of stress that I was under just didn't help at all either. But then, that's when I started to journal more often and talk to my life coach more, a nd things that put so much stress on me, I decided to walk away from it and just simply not deal with it. Obviously, it wasn't easy because let's be honest with ourselves, there are times when we all have dealt with something that didn't really belong in our lives, and it was extremely hard to let go of until things became more difficult, and that certain problem was unmanageable. Anyways, when things started to get better for me, that's when I started to find inspiration again, but it was mainly over the summer rather than it was during the spring semester. 

Applying for the Sports Editor position 

Over the summer, my advisor was sending out emails letting everyone know when the deadline was for the editor's position. Of course, it started with the sports and photography editors' position. Honestly, I have thought about it, but then I was also thinking about the school I wanted to transfer to and the jobs that I was applying for, and anxiously waiting for an email back saying "congratulations you are qualified for the position" but instead it was just another rejected email and someone else has gotten the position instead of myself. Then, there was the stress of finding health insurance, and that was stressful, and once I got that figured out, then I was stressed again about figuring out how I was going to pay my tuition. All in all, I had a lot on my mind and so much on my plate...why is being an adult so stressful? But then received another email from my advisor, and she recommended that I apply for the Sports Editors position because of all the hard work I have done. So I did, and after that, I received an email back from the editor-in-chief, and she told me that I got the position and that they were excited to have me on board. To me, this was big, and honestly, I was proud of myself. I told my friends and family about it, and of course, my parents mentioned am I'm getting paid for it. I'm not going to lie, it did kind of take the excitement out of it, but on the other hand, I understand because with all of my hard work, I deserve some kind of compensation. But little did everyone know that I wasn't going to be there forever, just for the fall semester, and then in the spring, I'm transferring and maybe further down the line moving. 

Working over the summer

Working over the summer has been pretty stressful, especially as Sports editor, because one thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that anything that I have going on or any new ideas, not only do I have to let my advisor know, but I also have to let all of the editors know! Sometimes I tend to forget and just let my advisor know, I am getting better at that though, which is a start. Over the summer, I have been typing up a lot of articles, and I think I have knocked down at least two. But as a make-up up I did cover the Brewers even, and I interviewed MATC's president about his love for Pickleball, which is amazing!