We've all heard the saying, "you don't know how good you had it until it's gone." As cliché as it may sound, I agree 100 percent. Included in this saying is the profession that one takes in their life. Many people, whether they are doctors, journalists or other professions, often forget how lucky they are to be doing what they get to do every day.
This past weekend, I got the opportunity to do something that I have dreamed about for many years -- work on a story with the Baltimore Orioles. Growing up as a kid, I fell in love with the game of baseball, and the Orioles in particular.
Friday afternoon, I found myself standing on the field at Camden Yards, a sacred place in my mind that I grew up seeing on TV. I was surrounded by former greats like Jim Palmer and Rick Dempsey, along with current greats like Adam Jones and Jim Thome. I saw media members that have established a reputation of being excellent journalists, including local and ESPN baseball reporters. As I marveled at the scene around me, some of them seemed thoroughly unimpressed at the same scene.
As I continued to shoot video, I began to think that perhaps these sports reporters and crews don't know how good they have it. Perhaps they don't realize that they are living out the dream thousands of young aspiring journalists have. To them, it was just another day on the job. To me, it was a dream come true and a day that I will not forget.
It is amazing to me how easily we forget and cherish what we have while we still have it. I look back on my past and wish that I had talked to loved ones a little more that are now gone, or enjoyed an event I experienced a little more than I did. You would think that I, along with other people, would learn the lesson of cherishing what I have when I see others taking things for granted.
I would like to promise myself that if I made it into the sports journalism business, I would never take a day on the job for granted. I would always try my best, and wouldn't rest until I had the perfect story that I wanted. I would never wish that I were somewhere else other than the ballpark or stadium. Essentially, I would hope that the game I was covering would last forever. But as everyone knows, I can never make those promises because I know I wouldn't be able to honor them.
It is very easy for me to sit back and judge those media crews I saw on the field Friday afternoon and say they don't appreciate the job they have been given. But who am I to say that they aren't cherishing their life and profession enough? One could easily look at me and say that I am not living my life to its fullest right now too.
We all are guilty of not cherishing everything we have been given to the fullest, whether professionally or life in general. My only hope is that, at least in my life, I can appreciate what I have been given as many days as I take it for granted.
Perhaps in the future, I might be sitting in Camden Yards again covering the Orioles. Yes, I know there will be days where I wish I were home instead of the ballpark. However, I hope I can match them with days where I feel like the luckiest man in the world for being given the opportunity to do what I have dreamed my entire life of doing -- being a sports journalist.