Well, it's August. To think I was here seven months ago and was writing about my troubles adjusting to this place seems like it was a long time ago. And honestly, it has been. I know that everybody I was close to has been doing their thing since I left back in California, just like I've been doing here since I arrived, but honestly, it still feels weird; as if I'm about to find out after my senior year of college whether I'm heading home or staying put to follow my dreams.
The last time that happened, I ended up heading home as I tried to break in with KTVU and keep my broadcasting aspirations afloat. I did a good job with that, taking a job at Friedman's for a little while before finding my spot with ThreeHouse when it was at its peak, which in turn, allowed me to get my current spot here with the Blue Jays. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I got here, but my seven months in Dunedin, as far as my career is concerned, have been some of the most fulfilling time of my life because it allowed me to become aware of what I needed to do in order to be successful. Not just in my career, which I always had my nose to the grindstone with, but just with my life in general.
The gym is no longer some place I go when I feel like it: It's another hour and a half added to my work day. It's some place I go because I've realized I don't like being this big dude anymore. I want to be able to slim down and feel good about it. I haven't felt this way about anything in my life since my senior year in high school, really, and I'm about to become as small as I was back then if things keep going well at the gym. I still have a long way to go to get where I want to with my physical self, but it seems as if my emotional side is turning a bit; where confidence and determination has replaced self-loathing and doubt. Although, as the people who I have complained to over the last few months know, it hasn't been an easy process!
To be honest, I don't know what the future holds with me here in Dunedin. I know that the Blue Jays would love to keep me around, but they also know that I want to broadcast, which has been my dream and my passion for five years now, and is something I hope becomes the fixture in my career much sooner than later. For the longest time, broadcasting has been an aside; almost a perk to my full-time employment with whoever I worked for. I've been chasing a dream, and to an extent, that dream has come true: I'm broadcasting professional baseball. Even on a small level, that's something I can be proud of (and something that goes on the resume).
Hell, I even realized a small dream last Thursday when Bright House Sports Network (what would be the equivalent of Comcast Sportsnet back in the Bay Area) had me on for a couple of innings during Dunedin's TV debut for the season when they took on Clearwater. They loved having me be a part of the broadcast and I helped out with them being prepared well for it, and I really came off looking like an asset to the program. That's all I could hope for. Now, the Blue Jays are on again this Thursday and it looks like I might get another shot to help out on the TV side of things. Perhaps this leads to something.
If there's anything anyone ever learns in life, it's that if you get any opportunity that might lead to something that you want to do, seize it. That's what I did when I went to the Baseball Winter Meetings in Vegas last December, and thankfully, it led me to this spot in my life where I am in professional sports: I'm good at what I do, and the sky is the limit. For seven years, I've worked my ass off to get to this point and I'm not about to let something get in my way. Within the next few days, I should find out what my future is with the team, and whatever is presented to me, if it's an opportunity to do something that might lead to the next big step in my life, I'll do what I've tried to do since I was an intern under Steven Serafini in sports at the I-T: I'll seize the opportunity, and I'll do everything I can to not only do the job, but add something to it so that it's my own.
Never before in my life has the phrase "Carpe Diem" meant more than right now. I intend to do that from now on. In my work, in my life, with myself. It's time to stop living with what isn't in front of me and start living with everything that is. And if anybody is doubting their abilities with anything in their lives, remember that whatever change you hope will happen begins with you. Always has, always will. For me, I just hope that the changes I've been making pay off in the long run.
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