a 6:00 am wake-up call is not something i look forward to, let alone on a saturday.

in fact, the idea of being in a close race with the sun makes me angry. i found myself doing just that last saturday. i’m taking this communications class that required us to judge a high school speech competition. 

as soon as i got to school i was a little overwhelmed. i was to judge two rounds of oratorical interpretation, the interpretation and delivery of a non-original speech (MLK’s I Have a Dream or Lincoln’s Gettysburgh Address). i got to the judging room only to find i was the lone judge…

half asleep, i waited for the high schoolers as i contemplated all my doubts and frustrations with life.

for so long i had wanted to be a journalist and recently the glamor of it all began to fade. i was no longer excited to go to volleyball games and interview/report. there was no longer a thrill in being able to pick up a paper on campus and see my by-line. it had all become a little mundane. 

i mulled over my sheet and the six contestants strolled in a few minutes before go time. my list had a combination of letters and numbers to identify each speaker, nothing more and nothing less. 

each one of them was an anonymous being sent to “wow” and “entertain” me with their individual speaking abilities.

i called the first one up.

a young asian girl, she seemed timid at first. her speech would start the same way. she delivered a speech by a rape victim. this was going to be a long day…

we were halfway through the first round when i called Y312 up to the front of the class.

she was the third asian girl to go. she was taller than the others and seemed to have a slight confidence about her. 

she recited the title of her speech, “Christiane Amanpour’s Keynote Speech at the 2000 Murrow Awards Ceremony”

i was in. 

amanpour is constantly praised in my various journalism classes for being the end-all-be-all of broadcast journalism. she’s the top. 

the Y312, more than any other speaker, looked at me when she was talking. it felt like amanpour was talking directly to me.

in her speech, amanpour addresses the state of journalism in the year 2000 and more over the perils of doing what she does. 

she’s constantly in harm’s way and is no stranger to conflict, war and whatever horrors this world has to offer nowadays. but why is it that she continues to do what she does? 

“Because it matters…[I am] going to tell the world about the bad guys and perhaps do a little good”

then it hit me. what i want to do is simple. 

i want to write things that make people fall in love with every aspect of these people, teams, moments, competitions, etc. that i fell in love with.

i want to be able to paint the picture to the public what it is like when that team that hasn’t won in forever finally catches a break. 

i want to convey the smell of fresh cut grass, the split-second hush over a crowd as the last second shot attempt goes up, or the tension in the stadium when a team has one more play to win it all. 

i want people to feel the roar of emotions during a victory and the agony of a loss. 

i want to show people the humanity behind that player that they always saw, but didn’t know. 

i want to write, talk, shout, yell about sports for the rest of my life and i had almost lost that. 

so, to you Y312, whose name i never got to find out, good luck at state and thank you for channeling ms. amanpour to remind me why it is i love what i do.