I’ve always kind of felt like a person who can be alright at a lot of things, but never really excelled at one particular thing. I’m OK at sports, I’m OK with technology, I’m OK at music…
When we went bowling last night, I think I finished second three games in a row, to a different person each time.
I guess it’s both a good and bad thing. On the one hand, I can usually kind of hold my own in different situations. I never feel completely overwhelmed by a situation, and I always try my best at whatever it is I’m doing.
On the other hand, I always feel like there’s someone out there (and by that, I mean in my proximity depending on the topic) who overshadows me.
This even seems to pop up when I’m discussing something. I wrote Sunday’s blog on the World Cup match, but when I tried to have a conversation about it with one of my fellow interns, I couldn’t articulate my argument as well as he did.
Today, I was going to engage in a debate with someone who I know is more knowledgeable about the topic we would be discussing. But instead, I just bit my tongue. I felt like I knew I was outmatched, so I didn’t even try.
And I don’t know how to feel about that. I mean, I probably saved myself a little bit of humbling and ridicule by not engaging him. On the other, why shouldn’t I speak my mind. I had my position, with some evidence to back it up. Was I really afraid of having a conversation?
Maybe it’s not always so good to be spread so thin.
“The Big Lebowski” Bowling Scene (couldn’t find an embeddable version, but still wanted to throw this in there)
So, after a relatively relaxing, work-free Monday, I finished the evening by going bowling. Not entirely sure who paid for everything — shoes, the games, beer, hot dogs (actually, I did pay for the hot dogs) — but it was a fun little excursion with my department.
(The reason for the outing was to say goodbye to two members of the desk. One is headed to law school in Texas and the other moved to a different department. I wish them both of them the best in their future endeavors.)
My first game was pretty meh; I suppose in my defense it had been at least 10 months since the last time I had gone bowling. But I turned it around in the second game, and the third was the best of the night for me.
But, as usual, I try to extrapolate the events of my life to some larger meaning.
So, all I saw when I got home from the casino (yes, I spent his Sunday at a casino — I’m just lucky there wasn’t a sports book there because I would have taken the Dutch) was the Twitterverse turning on today’s final between the Netherlands and Spain.
Did you all watch the same match I did?
9 to 11 p.m.
I hang out with some of new friends out in the courtyard. We chat, debate sports (what do you expect from a group that is mostly ESPN interns) and generally have a good time. A few people are drinking, and it just a generally cool atmosphere.
11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
About eight people go out to one of the local bars in Hartford. It’s noisy — a mix of more modern tracks with ‘90s “nostalgia” — the drinks are pricey (although, you admittedly got a decent amount for what you paid) and conversations are vapid at best.
Which do you think I had more fun at?
When I drive to the ESPN campus, I’ve noticed that the flag is at half-staff several days per week.
I wondered why, so I finally asked. I found out that Connecticut regularly lowers the flag on the order of the governor after a military death of a Connecticut resident.
In today’s case, it was to honor a former U.S. representative.
But I guess seeing that flag multiple times per week made me think about the hubbub of today.
So, we’re fewer than 24 hours away from the end of the LeBron Sweepstakes. This means two things:
A. LeBron James will pick where he will go.
B. Rhett will get to stop editing things about where LeBron might go.
Since the announcement is taking place in Greenwich, Conn., give or take 90 minutes away from my current residence and 75 minutes from the Worldwide Leader and I am a former card-carrying member of the Boys & Girls Club, I will have to ponder whether I will attend James’ announcement.
I have decided that I will announce my intentions to go to Greenwich in a 30-minute special. The timing of said special is all dependent on my ability to break into the “SportsCenter” set and figuring out how to turn on the camera.
I was reading a friend’s blog today. The author had been going through a rough patch and just needed to vent a little.
I can’t say for sure how much it helped — the power of putting words on the page can only do so much — but I do think there is some benefit to being able to express yourself in the public forum.
It may not fix the problem, but at least they have a chance to sort some of it out by writing. Oftentimes, I find that just getting something written can greatly help the organization process. As much as I’d like to pretend I can be organized in my head, I know there are better ways to handle it.
New York Times article on summer internships (Good news — not behind their paywall, either)
Thanks to my editing mentor, I was pointed to an article from the NYT about the “elusive” summer internship. In the article, it mentions the fact that 10,000 people applied for internships at ESPN and about 90 got them.
But beyond the accolade and shout-out (thanks Renee), this article touches on a few different things that caught my interest.
10 a.m. – Wake up, get dressed, breakfast
10:30 a.m. – Walk to parade
11 a.m. – Parade flyover and the parade. Meet friends and family at different points
1 p.m. – Leave parade, walk home
2:30 p.m. – Head to a random party for the day
Evening – Fireworks
No, that’s not what I did today. That’s what I would have done if I was in Indiana — more specifically, La Porte, Ind.
That’s where I would usually spend the Fourth of July if I was home. Been doing it for most of my life, excluding some stray summers where I was busy with work or other activities.
“Information = valuable”
That was the equation used in a discussion today. It came during a conversation about something that was actually quite important. We were discussing jobs and futures and that statement was dropped within it.
And he/she was right about the power of knowing things.
