Special Olympics: Winter games

On Saturday, I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, earliest I’ve been up in a long time and I made my way to The Oncenter in Syracuse. There were a lot of people wandering around, including athletes, parents, coaches and many other volunteers. A lot of the other people were volunteering to do score keeping, or keeping time, etc. But for me and the other Cortland students, we had an even better opportunity, and that was to pick ANY type of media we wanted to cover, and try it on our own. I chose photography because I thought it would be a good step in the door to possibly get my name out or at least a way to approach the athletes and coaches. I covered the snowshoe event, which I must way wasn’t the most exciting sport (and it was outside!), but it was slow paced which gave me time to take pictures and get possible statements from the athletes. I’m really happy that this was one of my first field experiences because all of the athletes were extremely nice and more than willing to sit down and have a conversation with me. They weren’t well known, or divas like other professional athletes may have been, but they still had incredible stories to tell. I had the option of doing print media, and I feel that next time I have an opportunity I will be more outgoing and willing to take risks, but this time around it was more of a trial run for me. I wanted to learn about what I am getting into, and how exciting it is to have an eye opening experience like this. I am a very shy person and it takes a lot for me to break out of my shell. For me to volunteer without asking one of my friends to come with me, or without backing out at the last second meant a lot to me and really boosted my confidence that if this is the industry I want to get into I need to loosen up and take chances like this. I learned a lot simply from watching the people around me, and taking my own initiative to walk up to people and ask to take a picture, or ask questions, or simply go places that only the “press” were allowed so I could try and get that good shot. All in all, it was a great experience and I would do it all over again. I really hope that more opportunities like this one come along so I can add more to my resume and continue to build up to my potential career when I am on my way out of Corltand.