Hello everyone, I hope you can all appreciate that life has once again been hectic since we last spoke on this blog page, as always, the last semester at university is always the busiest, especially when it is the last one in your entire degree!
However, that is all now done and dusted, all that is left at the minute is a nervous, and very anxious may I add, wait for the final results to land ahead of graduation day in July.
I’m also waiting to get back my final NCTJ results, so right now it is well and truly a waiting game, but like I said, there hasn’t been much of a break still.
Alongside finishing off the course, I’ve still been running and refereeing, both of which in this heat that we’ve currently got are really fun to do, but they keep me busy and stop any boredom from setting in so, they do just the trick.
I don’t know if there is a specific theme or any points I want to focus on in this blog piece, to be honest there’s never really a specific reason behind doing these blog posts either, it’s just me sitting and typing my thoughts away in a constructive manner and delving into different areas as to what has been going on since the last time I did one.
Reflecting on the three years of my course allows me to look at so many different points though, from that first moment that I started the course, alongside everything else that has come with it along the way.
All I wanted to do since I did my GCSE’s was some form of journalism, and like I’ve said on numerous occasions, it always made sense that it would be sport that I would talk about.
There’s a story that Peter Brockbank always reminds me of anytime I bump into him or mention sports journalism, and that is whenever I used to go to any matches when I was young, I would always act on them like a commentator or at least try.
On one hand that does make me incredibly annoying to anyone around me, but I was only young at the time so, I feel like that’s how I probably got away with it, and the more important point anyways is that he always said that I was destined to go into something like that when I was older, and here I am now at the end of my course, looking to do exactly that still.
In this whole journey there has been no one who has supported me more throughout than my family, although I do believe they are all just incredibly happy that they are getting ever closer to getting me out of the house full-time!
University to me has been more than just a chance to get a degree though, as it is for everybody I think, it’s a chance to see if you can actually fend for yourself on your own and not spontaneously combust or poison yourself when your cooking.
My first year was lost really due to Covid, an interesting point to make here as well is that I didn’t get Covid at all during the times when the pandemic was at its worst, but I got it last summer there when I was supposed to referee on Sky the next day, talk about excellent timing Ell.
But the second year was where I stepped foot into the unknown with moving away from home for the first time and living in accommodation.
You feel as though that can go only two ways, you either sink and it doesn’t work for you, or you swim and make the most out of it, and I can honestly say that all those nerves were eventually gone after a week or two.
Of course for people who may know me or kept an eye on my social media over that time may notice there’s something that I don’t mention about my second year now, but I’m not here to make this piece political, instead I’d always look at the opportunities that I created from it all.
Course wise it allowed me to strike up a partnership with rugby union team Fylde RFC, now up until then I was always more of a rugby league person and hadn’t really watched union much up until that point but, I wanted to throw myself in at the deep end with no armbands on and tackle a different sport and see just how much I could learn all about it.
Now if you asked me at the start what a ruck or a maul is I might’ve struggled to give you an answer, but now I can do that with ease, although I still don’t have a clue why they just kick it around all the time, although Fylde always looked to play rugby and didn’t look to kick it much at all so, I was happy with that approach.
To add to this, in the summer I also got the chance to go on work placement to BBC North West Tonight in MediaCity, which was a real eye opener, and showed me exactly what I needed to do if I ever wanted to work in such a place full-time.
By the time the second year was done I needed a break, and a trip to Rome seemingly did just the trick, but all eyes were on the third and final year which was just around the corner.
I continued at Fylde, maintaining the partnership for another season, but the one that I lost away from the course seemingly had the biggest impact.
My passion for sport and for writing has always been the thing that has mattered the most to me since I left school, being able to go to matches and sporting events and getting the chance to report on them and deliver the news to other people is a feeling that just cannot be topped, and is one that I want to keep doing going forward for certain.
Like I said though, it wasn’t just all about the course, the main reason why I didn’t get homesick in the second year or bored was because I had someone else to get me through it and gave me support from a direction that I hadn’t had before.
For that I can never thank that person enough, and it taught me that adulting is far from a straight forward task, and how I’d much rather just stick to trying to tell you what horses will win at Cheltenham or who will win the Premier League for the time being.
Judging on my posted efforts from Cartmel the other day I should probably reconsider that, although when I did go on the Wednesday I found myself picking out the first four winners, I obviously never posted them up though did I?
Anyways, life had changed directions again after August and September, it didn’t take me anywhere massive though like America, instead I was still in Preston and aiming my compass firmly towards finishing the course.
At first I felt as though I was definitely out of my league, (subtle song reference there to Fitz and the Tantrums), but I soon got into the grove again, a bit like Manchester City going on to win another Premier League title, once I got going, I wasn’t for stopping.
So much had happened in the world of sport though, Brian Hughes became a three time Champion Jockey in horse racing, a fantastic achievement for such a brilliant rider, Galopin Des Champs won his Gold Cup and Corach Rambler won the Grand National, and that’s just in my beloved horse racing.
I can confidently say that my Premier League predictions weren’t great but I was just happy that Wolves didn’t get relegated because I don’t think I could handle something like that.
In fact, I actually made a very brief return to football this spring to play in the end of year tournament for the university course, and I’m definitely faster and fitter now that’s for sure but the case of whether I can actually use my left foot for anything more than standing on remains to be solved I’ll tell you that.
We managed to win anyways, I felt much more comfortable in the right back role as well so.
That’s about it though I feel, I’m just hoping now I don’t look like too much of an idiot in my cap and gown pictures, we’re soon going to find out though.
Like I said, to sit here and just talk about sport is one thing but I’ve always liked these pieces to be more than that because it just seems more interesting when I weave other bits in, and also it makes me look as though I do actually have another life besides just sport.
You’ll still all catch me around as always, I’ll always be busy doing something lets face it, but it is also time for the next chapter now, the part where the real work begins you could technically say.
I’ve had a brilliant three years at university both on and away from the course, and I wouldn’t honestly change a thing, I just hope this blog page has been useful for anyone who has come across it, and wanted to see that there is way more to my life than just what appears to be sport on the surface.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a graduation that I have to sort…
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