How, precisely, did I get here?

That’s a fantastic question.

While I can’t answer for you, I know exactly how this website came to be, and I’m annoyed that it took so long to come into existence. (Some days, I can’t be sure if I still take myself seriously enough for this kind of thing.) Let me reason that out, for both of us.

It’ll be almost a year this April since I graduated from university. (I just read that sentence aloud about four times.) I’ve read many articles, and I keep up with the news on the economy and the politics behind its current state. It all says that I’m not alone; a huge number of recent graduates move back home for a period of time after college. (Just check this recent story from The Pitt News for evidence.) I’ve heard it so many times, it’s clichéd now, like most job-searching advice I find. I should be looking for full-time employment, and I feel slightly inferior at my lack of motivation to do so, but I’m okay. I’m actually okay with working part-time and strategizing the other part of the time. I’m making most loan payments on time, so why should I worry?

I’m not completely unmotivated. I’m just a little bit under-motivated. I’m actually painfully worried about the future. I sit in front of my computer and read about all the things I should be doing: classes I should be taking, executives I should be connecting with, things I should be doing to pump up my resumé. It’s enough to drive me crazy. (It may have already done so.) In order to make myself feel better, I exit the browser, hit the wireless switch, and hack out a nonsensical story in Word. I was an English major, with a concentration in Fiction Writing. Free-writing has always been therapeutic for me, even if it serves no practical purpose…but it only works for so long.

Some time in my last year of school, I realized that I couldn’t see myself working in publishing (in much the same way that I realized I couldn’t see myself working in theatre, two years before that). I didn’t hate writing (I loved it, and still do). I  just despise the thought of sending my own combinations of words to anyone for critique. By the time I realized this, it was too late to change anything, so I kept on. I was in my final year on track to a degree that I wasn’t sure I could actually use.

Fortunately, I also had my own apartment, and spent a lot of time in said apartment, thinking. In my case, “thinking” can also include “watching hockey, then writing about it.” That may have started the wheels turning.

I won’t try to map out a process, because I’ll fail at it, but there was a point in that year when I realized that pro hockey is my thing. Not just “my thing” in the sense that it’s my favorite sport. I was applying concepts from PR and advertising writing classes to in-arena advertisements. I read features on the Penguins’ website, looking for ways to improve my own writing. I interned with a local sports magazine, which actually published my game recaps on their website. I even attended a the SMWW conference at the NHL Draft last summer, and met some pretty fascinating people who’ve been in the industry for years.

When I make my desires known to casual acquaintances, though, I’m met with uncertainty. I can’t tell if it’s because people still don’t believe that girls belong in sports in general, or if it’s just that I don’t look passionate enough. (I butt in on hockey discussions at my part-time job, and it surprises people every time.) My lack of a degree in something athletics-related seems to be the biggest eyebrow-raiser. Why would I decide to work in a field that I don’t have a degree in? That seems crazy. But in my case, it took me four years of jumping around in liberal arts majors to figure out what I’m passionate about. In my eyes, I was learning just as much observing an organization like the Pittsburgh Penguins firsthand as I would have in any class about building a pro team in a (near-)perfect market. (Am I biased? Maybe.)

I’ve spent many a blog post trying to explain why I like hockey as much as I do, and it never works. I just like it, but I like it in a way that makes me want to make other people like it, too. Working for a team is the best way to do that. It just feels right to me, like this is the field I’m supposed to excel in.

So, how did I get here? By observing quite a lot.

What better time to start responding to it all than right now?