Well, hasn’t it been a long week of dreary weather!
I know it’s good for the plants, but it made my job inconvenient on multiple occasions during that time. But news flash: things often come up in this job, resulting in changes of plans and expectations.
As a journalist, my job often requires me to step in to cover last-minute stories and unique opportunities, such as championship games and college sports.
These sudden additions to my schedule are some of my favorite aspects of the journalism profession.
I am someone who likes to know what I’m getting into ahead of time, and the inconvenient weather made me flustered. It forced several changes of plans and shifted my expectations, but on the bright side, it gave me an interesting perspective I will never forget.
My first fight with Mother Nature last week began with a trip to Statesboro to cover Morgan County baseball as the team competed in the GHSA Class AA state championship against Pierce County.
If only I had prepared myself for the muggy, hot weather that South Georgia basically is.
I woke up around 5:30 that morning and arrived at Georgia Southern around 10:30 a.m., an hour before the first pitch.
This event was supposed to be just a few hours of my time, with both teams competing in a doubleheader, thanks to rain delays that had suspended the originally scheduled opener a couple of days earlier.
But alas! A lightning delay rolled through after two innings, lasting roughly two hours, before the game resumed. After that, both teams had only half an hour of playing time before another 2-3-hour lightning delay occurred.
During this time, I was forced to sit in the press box and was on the brink of insanity, since I usually can’t keep still for long. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to lie on a couch in the air conditioning, without humidity or pesky gnats flying around my face.
Once the second storm passed, I expected that after the game, I would book a room at a nearby hotel, and finally get to decompress for the evening, before returning for game two the next morning.
That plan of mine was quite short-lived, as the game concluded and the announcer said, “Game two will begin in approximately 30 minutes.” For a moment there, I wanted to scream because I was exhausted, but had some hope, because the Dogs finished strong in game one, and seemed motivated to sweep the series.
And sure enough, Morgan County claimed the state title with a stellar performance, and it was one of those sports events that will be talked about for years to come. Even as a reporter and photographer, I was ecstatic to witness this event because the ability to capture people doing what they dearly love fills me with immense joy. I feel I am living a life with the utmost purpose when I can be creative behind the lens.
Overall, the inconveniences from that day gave me a much better attitude toward my next sports project a few days later: UGA baseball’s Super Regionals. The first day of competition also resulted in a weather delay, but I wasn’t too disappointed because they reached the seventh inning with a double-digit lead.
“Braving the rain” over the past week truly made me think about how this metaphor often applies to daily life, and the sudden, unexpected events or “storms” force us to abandon plans or goals we anticipated.
So altogether, this rain made me appreciate that sometimes it is best to sit in the storm, rather than to run off and seek shelter.
By letting the storm pass through, you can learn so many important lessons and come back much stronger than you started.
In a literal sense, I’m glad I sat through the rain to get photos on that long Memorial Day, because as it turns out, rain photos with my camera look really cool, and add more to the story from a photojournalistic perspective.
Even though I prefer the sunshine, I now know for a fact that the literal and metaphorical rain will never stop me from pursuing my passion for sports photography. Sure, taking photos in bad weather may be far less enjoyable, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
So here’s to riding out whatever storms lie ahead and gaining a valuable experience or lesson from adversity.
God Bless!