Marshall played against Wichita State in the NCAA tournament when I was a senior in high school. I made a bet with myself. I was thinking of both schools. I thought of Marshall because it was close. I thought of Wichita State because I liked their basketball team.

Whoever wins this game, I’m going to school there.

My college career was in the hands of Jon Elmore and Landry Shamet. The Shockers were a crazy favorite. Marshall wasn’t supposed to win that game, but they did. I decided to go to Marshall the next day.

It seemed like my college choice was based on split-second decisions. I went to Governor’s Honors Academy in 2017 and took a class by none other than Professor Dan Hollis. I grew up in a high school where I spent most of my senior year traveling to other schools to take chemistry courses. That class was the first class that challenged me to think.

Naturally, when the Marshall recruiter came to my school, I asked simply:

“What does Dan Hollis teach?”

Those two events are how I became a journalism major.

Those who know me well know that I have severe social anxiety. It’s the perfect recipe for someone whose job is to speak to people. I still tend to struggle with interviews. I repeat questions and have to commonly say, “I’m sorry, I’m bad at talking to people,” when I go to speak to someone for the first time.

I think that’s what journalism at Marshall was for me: a challenge to break free from the anxiety that had slowed me down for most of my life.

WMUL, the Parthenon and all of the amazing professors and role models that I found during my time in Huntington have caused me to become confident that the field that I originally joined on a whim is meant for me.

I sat in Charleston last weekend for the TBT tournament: my first time covering a big event in sports since I departed from Marshall. While my coworker edited together her stand-ups, I crept outside to watch Herd That win their first-round matchup. Watching Jon Elmore move the nameplate on for their next matchup, Best Virginia.

I cover WVU athletics for my new job. It’s weird, but it’s my job to say what happened, not what will happen. With that in mind, Marshall University won a Division I championship in a major sport before WVU while I was at Marshall. North-central West Virginia can’t take that one from me.

Anyways, here we are now. I graduated from Marshall with a degree in sports broadcast journalism. I met my wonderful wife Jordan during my time at Marshall. We were meant for each other, and we got married shortly after graduation. I’ve found a job working as a sports anchor and reporter with WDTV, a TV station in north-central West Virginia. I’m happy, actively growing away from anxiety each day, and it all started because Jon Elmore hit a few threes when Vegas said he shouldn’t have.