Respect

So as I have mentioned before I read a blog written by one of the guys on the PBR tour. Well he is rookie and is in the lead to win the Rookie of the Year title. He has been not riding to his standards and wrote about it in his most recent post. At first the comments he received on it were positive saying the common things like oh you are in a slump you will get through it and you are on the tour and would not be if you were not capable of winning and things like that. Then things got bad. People were telling him that he is not that good to think he is capable of greatness and not to compare himself to the most renowned world champions because he is not at their level. I think this is sad. He is writing this blog for his fans so that they can get a look inside life on the tour as bull rider. This to me is not an opportunity to down on him and hate on what he has achieved. What he has done is something that not everyone can do. I think that it is also rude to take him down when he is doing this for the fans. I am a journalist so of course I believe in free speech but I do not believe in saying things that are disrespectful. If you do not like what he has to say then guess what you do not have to read it. And if you feel that you must say something then at least say it in a respectful way. He could have just as easily said do not compare yourself to Justin McBride because he as been around a lot longer and has most likely overcome the same dilemmas so it is just a matter of overcoming obstacles. See the same point was made but it was made in a more respectful manner. I just needed to get that off my chest because it was bugging me in a bad way.

Haters

So at the end of last week there was a press release that top bull riders Guilherme Marchi and JB Mauney recently did a photo shoot on fashion for Playboy magazine. Now after the release of this news article PBR fans ran to the message boards to express their disbelief for the two fan favorites. Talk soon arose about how can these men could justify doing this. The main issues being how could Marchi's wife allow him to pose for such a magazine. He was soon excused because of his devoution to his religion. Now JB Mauney who wears a cross necklace he involves in his pre ride ritual was deemed hypocritical and immoral. The defense for this accusation being his family is liberal and his sister used to work for Hooters meaning they were a family with no morals. Now I have two really major issues with this accusation that was made. I come from the most liberal of families where religion was never mentioned. I have never read a single verse of the bible and the only time I have ever been in a Church is for weddings. I do not believe that the way I was raised makes me have no morals. Also Playboy is a respectable publication with great writing. Also hello this is a magazine for men so it is not like they were posing nude in order to be pin ups. Hello it was a fashion shoot and both men shot in their bull riding gear and then changed into shirts, sports coats, and jeans. I do not see anything wrong with that. Also there was a comment about how JB Mauney is a playboy so no wonder he would do that. To me that is ridiculous. I went to the afterparty that was held after the San Antonio and Dallas events and I saw JB there. In San Antonio he was talking to a group of friends the whole night while another rider was being a drunken idiot. Then after the Dallas event he was there signing autographs and talking with fans. So does that sound like a morally corrupt playboy to you. Fans should like him for his riding abilities and not care about his personal life. When it comes to him a lot of fans only care about him because he is one of the better looking riders. That is a sad situation that the 2006 Rookie of the Year who finished 3rd in the world the next year and is on pace to do the same or better this year is only admired by some for his looks. He became my favorite rider because I saw his short go ride last year during the first event I watched and I was amazed. I can say I am a true fan not based on looks because guess what he rides with a helmet on so I could not see how he looked. I was taken in by just the pure talent of this guy who rode so loose it was amazing that he was able to stay on.

Bored again

So I started my summer class on Monday and I thought that would help me fill the time until I got a job. I was sadly mistaken. I hate the fact that I am having a hard time finding a new job. I just do not understand what is wrong. I mean it worked out better for me when I was just out of high school and had never had a job and had no references. Now, I actually have a job history and references which to me would logically mean that my chances for getting a job would be better but I have been steadily looking now for almost a month. I am running on my last bit of money and my credit card bill is piling up so I am having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It makes me now wonder if there even is a light. Things are looking worse than they ever had before and I am running out of options. I worry because this is unfamiliar territory to me and I wonder if I will ever recover from this. Who knows tomorrow I might get a phone call from one of the places I applied to and I will get a job but I hate the feeling of not knowing. When I was working at Chuck E Cheese I may have gotten crappy pay and hours but at least it was a paycheck. The job was slowly eating away my soul but what exactly is the price of my soul? Would it have been better if I had stayed at the job that was killing me so I could live in misery but at least I could pay my bills. I don't know what the future will bring but I hope that this is all happening for some greater purpose.

Bored at Home

So I have been home since the end of last month without a job. I put in my two weeks and they only scheduled me one day in those coming weeks. I have been applying everywhere but nothing has been happening. Once place has actually contacted me and said that I have to wait a little over a week before they will have a decision. This is discouraging. I understand I am a 19 year old student and that does not make me the ideal employee but I have experience and was at my previous job for almost 2 years before getting pushed around to the point I had to quit. I don't understand how some people actually enjoy having no job and nothing to do. All I have to do is chores and watch tv. I know this is my summer vacation and I should be just having fun but I want to be working and making money. I want to have a place to go and something to do all the time. I like the feeling. I wonder why this had to happen to me. Was it punishment for quitting the job no one thought I had the guts to quit? I mean I know that I was right to quit because I was being treated poorly but does that mean I have to go all this time without a job. The plan was to put in my two weeks and by the end of that I would have found a new job. I guess letting me go a week early threw things off but I am trying to roll with the punches. The real problem is I am ready to start my career. I feel like right now I am just filling time until I can start my dream career. Why do we all get cought in this thing of wanting to get started as fast as we can. I understand that I am still working on my degree so I should be waiting until that is done before I go and worry about being a reporter for the PBR. The only problem is I want this so bad when things go baad here i try and make it an opportunity to make my dream come true. I subconsiously hope that a position in the PBR will open up so I can start my career seeing as this would be the perfect time. The fact of the matter is it will not happen until I get my degree and I need a job in order to get my degree. I just want my phone to ring with am awesome job offer so I can go back to the way things were when I did not have to worry about weither or not my dream was going to come true. So I guess for now I just sit here and brainstorm other ideas for a job so I can finish my degree and someday make my dream come true.

slow down to see your dreams.

I have been reading bull riding blogs from Reese Cates. Right now there is a break in the tour so he is doing a lot of minor league events and it made me wonder. I think it would be amazing getting to drive around the country getting to do what you love. We live in a time now where we need to get to places as fast as humanly possible and we miss so much. I live here in San Antonio Texas right now but I was born and raised in Waterford Connecticut. When I first moved down here I drove. We saw so many things and it was the best three days of my life. We got to take our time and see what so many people miss by flying. Yes it takes longer but it was amazing. I am a country girl stuck in a major city so I loved it when I had to make that long drive again because I got to see the countryside. If anyone has driven through Arkansas it is almost all trees and land surrounding the highway we took and it was so peaceful. Also further north we drove through the Poconos and there was snow on the mountains and all these wonderful memories came back. Growing up in New England you are accustomed to snow and you either love it or hate it and I loved it. Now this second trip was made 5 years after the initial so I was excited to see snow. I was taken back to a time where things were easy and if I wanted I could just pack up the car and travel the country doing what I love. For me that is reporting and I have a specific dream of what I want to write about. I want to travel the world and report on Bull Riding. I went to my first bull riding last year and it was the most amazing experience of my life. The atmosphere took me back to the time of when I was a child growing up in small town Connecticut. Now most people consider Connecticut to be snooty rich people living in mansions. I did not grow up in that part of Connecticut. Fact of the matter is most of Connecticut is Suburbs and Farmland. My sister lived across the street from a farm and I remember feeling that I wanted to live there. The owners of the farm did not raise bucking bulls but rather oxen. They traveled the tri state area going to state and county fairs with their ox to bring them to pulls. Now although I loved the whole raising livestock and traveling concept the whole animal pull thing was a slight bore to me. I had watched bull riding occasionally but it wasn't until April 2007 that it became a major factor in my life. Now I had always thought that I had been a sports fanatic but I do not remember any moment in another sport as I did this one ride. I was flipping through the channels and I came across bull riding. I thought to myself what the heck lets watch this. The they introduced the next rider as number 2 in the world and was keeping up with the number 1 and they challenged each other weekly if one rode so did the other. So then it was time to see the number 2 man ride, if he rode and got a certain score he was going to win the event and the number 1 had bucked off so this would help make major ground for this 19 year old to become the number 1. Now I was around that age and it just amazed me that someone my age could accomplish something of that caliber. So the chute opened and in what I would soon learn was typical fashion for him he loosely rode the bull as if it were nothing. When he got off the bull the camera went in on his face and he looked to the camera smiled and gave the hang loose symbol. I was fascinated. I had to know who he was. The scores came in and they said he did amazing and yes sure enough he had gained enough points to win the event and gain some ground on the world number 1. I was hooked. For those of you who know nothing about the sport I am talking about a guy named JB Mauney from North Carolina. He would end the year 3rd in the world but not without putting up a fight and the highest score of the finals(the Superbowl of bull riding.) So I had always known I wanted to be a writer but had been unsure of what I wanted to write about. After seeing that event and going to the live event in San Antonio as well as many amature events it was a no brainer that bull riding was what I wanted to write about. It seemed perfect, I loved the sport, the environment, and the bull riders. I actually got the chance once to interview some cowboys at the local rodeo for a college assignment and I felt a feeling of belonging I hadn't felt before. I considered doing the rodeo thing because it happened locally I most likely could have gotten a job right then and there, the only problem was I am not a fan of the rodeo. I am a fan of bull riding. The only reason I will go to the rodeo is because they have bull riding there. Being there live there is an adrenaline rush of emotion that I love when you see a great ride or see a cowboy walk away and tip his hat to the audience after a seemingly deadly wreck. I want to be the one who interviews the cowboys after these memorable moments and tell all who weren't there what they are missing. So after reading Reese Cates blog on how he loves to drive to events and I thought of a perfect article for me to do: On the road with a Bull Rider. An in depth piece about life on the road. It would be the perfect thing to make people slow down and see what they are passing by. These cowboys travel to these events spending tons of money and they so not get a weekly paycheck, they only get paid if they win. I think more people need to live that way. These men may not all be wealthy but they are doing what they love and that is the important thing. Watch out for it because some day I will be a writer for the PBR and I will share with everyone my passion.