I moved to Cedar Park about a week before freshman year began. I didn’t know what to expect when I was making the transition from my old school to CPHS because no one knew me. The thing is, no one bothered to get to know me because they thought I was friends with kids from the other middle school. For instance, no Steiner kids knew me so they thought I was from CPMS. No CPMS students knew me so they thought I was from Steiner. So in my freshman year I didn’t even have enough friends to fill my Top 8 on MySpace. The only way to get acquainted with people was through activities, and the only activity I’d ever participated in was basketball. So when I got axed from the basketball team my sophomore year because apparently “I have no right hand,” I got really lost. My two interests were writing and sports, so I decided I needed to find a way to combine the two and joined newspaper.

     The newspaper editors of 2008 were basically obligated to accept me because someone needed to take over for Sports after Jeff Lowe left. And, since no one else applied for the position, I was their only option. So junior year I was on the newspaper staff, hoping that I could add a lot more depth to the sports section.

     And I did. There were multiple issues where I wrote four and five stories, and I’m sure Jeff didn’t mind my determination to write stories—it was less newspaper stuff he had to deal with which gave him more time for his broadcast projects. At that time, I had absolutely no interest in broadcast. In fact, I hated all the broadcast folks because they thought they were so much cooler than all of us newspaper nerds because they were on TV every day and people actually paid attention to it. Though it seemed like nobody read the newspaper. They’d grab a copy, rip out the Firehouse coupon and throw the paper on the ground. But I wasn’t writing for the students, I was writing for me. I was finally starting to realize where I wanted to go in life.  Junior year was really the best year of my high school experience because I was introduced to something I loved.

      After being hounded and peer pressured into doing the Wolfcast senior year, I finally applied to be on the broadcast staff. Again, they were obligated to accept me because Jeff Lowe had embarked on his college career. The first couple weeks I pretty much loathed the class. I didn’t really do anything and I didn’t know any of those broadcast kids. But once football season rolled around and I got some time to film and work with video editing, I began having the time of my life. The energy from the fans at the football games was incredible, and it helped that we actually had a good team this year. I started becoming friends with those broadcast kids who turned out to be some of my best friends. There were plenty of times where there was some negative energy in class but they always found a way to brighten things up. Newspaper this year was a lot different than last. We had a change in staff with a lot of cool seniors leaving but there were some people who really made this year fun. We had some good times, all of us. It is sad that it all has to end, but just like the Bible says “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” Now it’s my turn to grow up and I’m excited about it. It’s not going to be easy but I have faith that everything will turn out fine.

     I may never see some of you again; after all, I will be headed to Missouri next year. Maybe you’ll see me on ESPN in a decade or so. Maybe you’ll see me writing for a newspaper. If it’s in God’s will, I may be doing a little bit of both. But however things turn out, I know I’m going to give it my all and leave it all on the court.