Evening Thoughts

Sunday 

March 16th 

2016

9:22pm 

*** Joseph Campbell once said, “If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.” At a very young age, my parents signed me up for any sport available. I started out scoring goals in soccer, hitting line drives in baseball, and I even wrestled for a year. When I got older, the small white baseball shifted into a much bigger, brighter yellow color and I began playing softball in the spring. I hung up the tight singlet and dribbled a basketball all winter long. My fall days became occupied by my first sport soccer and a new game, much more tame than the others, golf. It does not matter if I am on the course putting for par, scoring a goal in the upper right ninety, dribbling through the defense and dishing the rock off to an open teammate, or even hitting in a pair of runs…there is one thing I know for sure. Sports are my passion, my true love, my absolute bliss. Like Campbell said, the life I was living when I was young, infatuated with all aspects of sports, should be the one I am living now. What better way to pursue my passion than to keep the one thing I’ve always known close to my heart as I graduate high school. The major “Sport Management" allows me continue my love for sports. ***

I wrote this excerpt for a scholarship I was applying for towards the end of my senior year in high school. Even though it was written less than a year ago, I feel like I was so naive back then. I was naive to think that my love for sports was a good reason I entered this major. I was naive to assume that my personality was my top attribute. Last but not least, I was extremely naive to believe that being a female in male dominated major and industry would be easy. 

Over the course of this year, something has been bothering me. It has been under my skin for quite some time now. I see it happen almost every day on television. I listen to it happen over the radio. I read it on social media. I experience it myself. 

The lack of respect for women in the sport industry. 

I should not have to address this, but I am in no way complaining. I am not "crying" about it like I have been told by some of my peers. I am not acting like a baby either. It's just I had this preconceived notion that women were equal to men. As time has gone on, I have learned that the sad truth is women are not equal to men. Not in this industry. Not in life. 

I see women on television taking the backseat to men. I hear women on the radio getting cut off when trying to voice their opinions. I read horrible, terrible things written about females in the sport industry on twitter. For me, I do not feel equal. I don't feel like my opinion means as much as my male peers. Honestly, it's not a feeling: it's a fact. A fact that upsets me. A fact that I disagree with. A fact that I will have to experience every day for the rest of my life. A fact that should not be a fact. 

Shannon L. Alder once said, "Every woman that finally figured out her worth, has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change." That's exactly what I am going to do. I don't feel sorry for myself at all. In fact, I am motivated. I am ready to show the world what I can do. What a female can do in the sport industry. The many things she can accomplish and achieve. The ideas she has to offer. Gain the respect that she will earn and deserve. 

Most of all, I want to be the example for a young girl from a town like Osceola Mills, Pennsylvania. I want to tell her that knowing the entire New York Yankees team at age six is something to be proud of. I want to ensure that her long hours studying film, and sketching offensive sets during basketball games at age ten will pay off some day. I want her to know that she can do anything she puts her mind to. I want to instill strength within her to break the barriers. Most importantly, I want to encourage her to pursue a male dominated major and industry. 

Sure, it will be a challenge; however, I know if anyone can do it, it's that little girl from a small town in central PA. 

- H²