2020: A Field of Dreams

Between the fog on my bathroom mirror, I read the words “Things to Pray For Daily: - Olympics.” Though these prayer requests have been cleaned off for a few months now, if the steam gets hot enough the words appear. Over the past few weeks, when I noticed the words I would laugh at 1. the fact I can’t get rid of the reminder (hint: don’t write with wine glass markers on your bathroom mirror) and 2. God’s plan must be greater.

Here is the short of it: December 2109 I accepted a position to work in digital production with NBC Sports for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Somewhere between watching Shawn Johnson flip to gold in 2008, visiting the Olympic village in London in 2011 prior to the 2012 games or hearing stories of Atlanta in 1996 (the year I was born), attending the Olympics was sketched high on my “dreams list.”

Over the past two years, I have had many moments where I questioned my decision to go to graduate school and pursue a career in sports media. After this position seemed like a strong possibility, I spent many hours praying that if this was meant to be that it would all come to fruition, hence the prayer request written on my bathroom mirror. This is why I must have gone to grad school?! This was all working out how it was supposed to, right?

Now mind you, I never questioned the possibility of the Olympic Games not happening in the summer of 2020.

But, they aren’t.

This season has been a swirling of emotions. To have a job, then to not. To have dreams come true, then taken away. To have poured heart and soul into sports, for sports to be cancelled.

If there is one thing I truly believe in all of this, doors aren’t closed without better ones opening. I am holding faith to that while in this season of waiting. We have A L L been affected by a pandemic and we A L L will be better because of it.