Andrew & Michelle

It has been awhile since Michelle or I have had the time to sit down and pound out a blog post, but I have a few minutes now and I feel it’s long overdue. So to our friends and family out there, who feel that they don’t hear from us anymore, know that things are well with us.

Our lives have been incredibly busy recently, too. So busy, in fact, that I was awake working for (Mom and Dad, you can cover your eyes for this one) 45 consecutive hours from Wednesday morning to Friday morning this week. Despite how insanely busy it has been, this was what I consider to be a great week. I’ll get to that later.

As most of you know, I work as an editor for the sports section of the campus paper and with the Syracuse basketball team winding down its season — and with spring football starting and the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament here in town — it has been an unusually busy time for me. Typically, working full-time, being a student and working with the youth in our ward keeps me pretty busy, but this week the workload has been a little out of control. Luckily, my Friday’s are pretty laid back. So here I am.

Michelle also spends her days working part-time and going to school full-time, in addition to working with the youth in the ward. Sadly, she spends her nights with friends or alone here in our apartment while I’m off to work.

The great thing is that the hard work has really been playing off. With the East Regional in town, I was given an opportunity to cover the event for the newspaper. The first two games were played last, and I spent nine hours there. Not was it an opportunity to see the nationally televised games from press row (with four current NBA players sitting directly behind us), but I was able to spend some time making contacts with some of the national media in attendance. Some of these guys — who I have admired for years — were literally working along side me, discussing the game and all the angles. In addition, there were several notable guys who have recently been in my situation at The Daily orange and at Syracuse University, who are now covering the event for such outlets as The New York Times and the Washington Post.

After watching the game, the player interviews with some of the best collegiate athletes in the country — guys who will soon be multi-million dollar professionals — and the writing of the stories from the games were probably the best part. After I had emerged from the Carrier Dome at 3 a.m. I had experienced the highest of highs in my eventual profession. Even though I knew I had to arise at 8 a.m. for a class, I didn’t mind.

You can check out my story on dailyorange.com.

All in all, it has been the most beneficial and rewarding experience I’ve had in my journalism career so far. It is one of those things that have allowed me to sit back for a second and realize that despite the hard work, it’s all worth it. Even though I’m here paying for an expensive education, the best education I’ve received is working these events and getting feedback from professionals. That’s how I’m learning the most, and that’s where my primary focus has been. Lucky for me, I’ll get to do it all over again Saturday night when I return to the Dome for the concluding game in the Regional.

Michelle’s days and weeks have been eventful as well. She’ll be finishing her degree and graduating in May, and she has been doing a ton of others things to keep herself busy. I’ll let her tell you a little more about that when she has some time.

As a bit of news, we’ll be down in Northern Virginia this summer, and I’ll be completing an internship at USA Today. Fortunately, we have friends and family down there, so that will obviously be a great opportunity. That will give me some additional experience and we’re really looking forward to it. I’ve known about the internship for a few weeks now, but most of you know that I’m a bit reluctant to toot the old horn. That being said, I figured I’d get it out there because a few people have given me a hard time for not keeping on how that entire process was going.

So things are well and we’ve been blessed with great opportunities. The hard work is paying off and we’re excited for the spring and summer. Until then, we’ll just keep plugging away at what’s in front of us and keep our eyes peeled for what’s next.

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