A week full of relaxing

I am back to writing after a week vacation. Even though I haven't needed to studied since Monday, I needed a break from my daily routine in college throughout this semester. There hasn't been a lot of interesting news updates since last week and, there wasn't anything special about my life to actually talk about. This week has been more interesting than ever.
On Monday I had my last final ever as an undergraduate student at the University of New Hampshire. It was my sports writing final and what we did was we watched a Colorado Rockies/Chicago Cubs game in 2008. The Rockies had a 9-1 through five innings and the Cubs scored three runs in the sixth inning and six runs in the seventh inning and the Cubs won 10-9. After the game, we had to write a first draft which is a running story. After we emailed our running story, we had to go to another room and my instructor, David Cataneo pretended to be the players and managers and we interviewed them about the game. David was funny because of the things the players and managers pretended to say. Then we had to write the wrap, which is the game story with the quotes from the players and managers. I got it done four minutes before the deadline. It was a lot of fun because it was my first time ever working under pressure like that. Even though it may not have gone as planned, I was happy about gaining experience of what it is like to work on a short deadline.
Since Monday, I have basically been on vacation. While everyone else is writing long papers or studying for their final exams, I have just been relaxing and doing what I want to do. I have more time to read the newspaper, go to the gym, reading and spending more time with my friends. I was actually going to go home this weekend because I wanted to break up my time from Monday until next Saturday, but my mother, my mother, the woman who is selfish about giving me up persuaded me to stay at UNH this weekend. She said that it will be my last weekend ever in college and there is a possibility that I may never see some of my college friends ever again. I then thought about it and then I realized that she is right. I can see my family and friends anytime I want. I do think that I will see some of my friends again someday, but we shall see.
Yesterday I got to meet Jackie MacMullan, a columnist from the Boston Globe and contributor of ESPN. She attended and graduated from UNH in 1982. She came back to be a guest speaker at a luncheon that the university president Mark Huddleston held for guests and alumni. The Journalism department offered all of the journalism students to meet Jackie 45 minutes before the event and seven students, including myself, accepted the invitation. Before I got to meet Jackie, I felt like I was hyperventilating. I felt like this because I have been reading her stories since I was a freshman in high school and I had great respect for her. While I was unable to get my breath, I needed to get a banana to calm my nerves. Sure enough, after I ate my banana, I felt a lot better. Finally Jackie comes in. All of the sudden I felt extremely confidant. I knew what I was going to talk to her about, but I also wanted to listen to what she had to say. She talked about her most recent released book "The Game is Ours" which is about the rivalry between NBA legends Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson. She said that writing books "sucks the life out of you." I figured it would be, especially if you are writing about a guy who had no personality and a guy with too much personality. She also talked about her career and all of her favorite stories. When it was my turn, my question was: "Since you played basketball during college, did it benefit you when it came to covering basketball games?" She said it didn't help with her writing but it did help her when it came to talking to players. That was exactly what I wanted to hear and I was very happy that I asked her that question. We also talked a little about the current Celtics teams and it was really interesting of what she had to say about the team. She said that Rajon Rondo would not be the player he is today if it wasn't for "The Big Three" which is Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. I immediately felt comfortable while I listening to her. She was so easy to talk to. I can see why all of the players wanted to talk to her. Jackie is very nice and so outgoing. She kept telling us to get our names out there, bother as many editors as possible and show your passion. That made me feel really good that I was able to sit down with someone who went to the same school as I do and get to the top. I can tell that she went through a lot to get to where she is today. I felt like I was walking on water after I talked to her and it was a great feeling.
I am eight days away from graduating. It is a surreal feeling that I am so close to finishing. The best part is that I can relax as much as I want until then. I have plenty of time to search for jobs. I have the rest of my life to find direction in my line of work. What my job is for right now is to relax, have fun and do everything I want to do until next Saturday.