By: Riley Zipper

I am an… unlikely character for the job, (the headline of this article is a pun of a Björk film, just saying) but for the last two years I’ve been one of the sports broadcasters for WNAS, which is the school’s radio station if you live under a rock. Last year, Asa Sipe and I joined Stefan Jensen, who is now graduated, as part of the broadcast team. It was a great experience and bloomed a friendship between Stefan and I that will probably last forever because we’re both so incorrigible that we’re the only ones that can put up with the other for an extended period of time.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am not really a huge sports fan. I enjoy watching sports occasionally, but my friends know that I’d much rather watch a good film or play than go to a basketball game. Not very Indiana of me, but what can I say? It’s the truth. But, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to sports. Not meaning to be a narcissistic buffoon or anything but I do a pretty good job broadcasting.

Many people would cower at the thought of not being able to participate in the student section activities that occur during games. I didn’t mind it. I never understood most of the ambiguous chants anyway. I’m not much on competition either, so degrading the opposing teams was always off-putting to me also.

Anyone that knows me also knows that I complained endlessly about having to spend most of my Friday and Saturday nights running from town to town in the parts of Indiana that you see in the ABC television program The Middle. I could’ve been hanging out with friends or anything else, but no, I was broadcasting. That became a popular excuse for me to use whenever my friends invited me to do something with them, “I’m doing the game tonight.” But, you know what, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Last Saturday, the Bulldogs lost in the second round of the sectionals to Bedford North Lawrence. This was my last broadcast. It was a bittersweet experience. On one hand I had my weekends back, but on the other I would never be doing something that I truly enjoyed, ever again. And I actually did enjoy it. It wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world and it took up a lot of my time but I still enjoyed broadcasting.

Near the end of my “career” in broadcasting, I lost my love for the job. I just didn’t want to do it anymore, but I kept on doing it for Mr. Kelly’s sake. Maybe call it senioritis, but I just lost my desire to do it anymore. But I stuck to it. I didn’t want to leave Mr. Kelly high and dry like that. But anyone listening could probably tell that I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I didn’t want that to happen. Who wants to listen to someone who obviously doesn’t want to be on the radio? That’s boring and depressing, like the film Requiem for a Dream to a 13-year-old girl. Thank you to the three people that understood that reference. Arbitrary references aside, for a couple weeks it was probably a little boring for the listeners of WNAS. But I decided that I needed to change. I couldn’t make my last month of broadcasting miserable for my listeners! So I tried my hardest to put aside my temporary setback in my desire to broadcast and succeeded pretty well. So well that I actually rekindled my love for what I did.

So I guess the point of this rambling, stream-of-consciousness article is don’t give up on something just because you’re in a rut. It’s hard to do, and trust me; I’ve had plenty of experiences with ruts. The worst thing to do when you’re in a rut is give up. That doesn’t help anything. Just stay focused and everything will turn out fine. Okay, I’m going to stop writing before this article turns into a Journey song.