Monday, November 17, 2008

College and Short Track

Well, I got accepted to my first college. I wasn't really worried about getting into it, I knew my chances. When you have a 4.1 and a 1150 (or 1800 if you count writing) on your first SAT (i took it again but haven't gotten my results yet) a lot of local schools aren't the most difficult ones to get into. The more difficult schools I applied to are Pitt and Penn State both of which I haven't heard from (Pitt being the harder of the two to get into). So the whole safety school thing is out the window. I never really picked a safety school in the first place. I had like a 2-4 week response on the first college I applied to so I figured if I didn't get into it I would start applying to a safety school.
I have absolutely no idea what I plan to major in. For the past two years I planned on majoring in journalism/communications but last year I did a graduation project on it and I wasn't happy with the results. I am a good writer. I don't know why but I can write papers well. Particularly journalism papers. So I always thought it would be easy to just do what I am really good at. But the problem is I would become a Sports Journalist. Sports journalist work the hours of 4-12 on most days in order to get their piece written before their paper sends to press shortly after midnight. Normally you start out with nothing writing articles for a paper just trying to get hired. Then you will most likely work at a small time paper and make (if you are lucky) the average $40,000 a year. When I decided I wanted to be a journalist I had this vision of myself working at a big paper like the NY Times and sitting in my office cubicle writing the latest piece on the current Professional sport. Then the reality hit me and the fact that there is such a small percent of people that make it that far. The reality is that most journalist work for small time papers in more rural settings. Their paper probably comes out once a week and they are the papers that have done articles on me besides the one article I got written about in the Reading Eagle which is the only legal city in Berk's County.
Then there is Short Track. Haven't really done much of it thus far this year. I think about 5-6 practices. One race. The little Lehigh Valley race we went to this past Saturday. Not to be mean but there wasn't really competition. I was racing my brother as my biggest competitor and I do that at practice. Discounting the 500 I was over 5 seconds off my PB in the 1000 and like a good 13 seconds off my PB in the 1500m. Three former inliners made the Junior ST World Team: J.R. Celski, Eddy, and Robert Lawerence. That's good. I think I'm going to try and attend that meet next year. Top 16 in a 1000m TT end up being allowed to try out and after looking at this years last couple qualifying times I'm pretty confident I can make it especially because I feel I'd be better at a 1000m TT then I am at the 1000m pack race. We'll just have to wait and see. I still might see if I can attend a meet where I could qualify for the Am Cup time. I'm about two seconds over it from last year but with competition I think I might manage it by the end of the season.

2 comments:

mikeb said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mikeb said...

Blogger mikeb said...

Hi Keith,

Sorry I haven't had the chance to join you Tuesday evening practices yet this year.

Best of luck with the college search. My daughter is finishing college and remains interested in journalism though she is also considering some other careers. Note that while jobs in 'paper' journalism are few, there is an explosion of jobs in internet journalism. So all is not hopeless. Also, the last year of college is a time when you'll be exposed to alot of other career ideas.

A quick thought about a prior blog where you noted some recent falls in the worlds. I have no coaching skills. I've seen you skate and I think your form is terrific. My only question is equipment. I recall that you use a frame that's over 13 inches long. I wonder that this is a bit long for your size. There is a machismo to skating large frames and clearly you have the strength and athleticism to use this equipment. But other smaller elite athletes have switched to smaller frames and improved their times. For instance, Eddie Matzger (now older) skates a 12.8 inch frame. Nicole Begg skates a 12 incher. Perhaps these frames actually make these skaters a touch more stable and a touch faster?

Best of luck.

Mike B.
Reading, Pa.

December 10, 2008 8:36 AM