Baseball = Love

Ever since i can remember i have been attracted to baseball. I remember when i was around 4 years old i would watch games on the couch with my dad, holding a little glove i had gotten even before then, thinking maybe i would catch a ball through the television set. A lot has changed with me and baseball since thing but one thing has stayed the same. That would be my passion for the game.

My connection to baseball in all reality can not be explained by words. Whether it is playing, watching, or even just talking about baseball, for that very moment everything in my world seems to be completely in balance. It takes away all the stress from everyday life and in all reality just sends me to my "happy place".

After playing 14 years of baseball, my love for the game has done nothing but become stronger. Without the game of baseball I know i would not be the same person i am today. It has molded much of my personality and simply who i am. People always talk about how strong one's connection to a sport or a team can be and i am living proof that some people really do live through "there" sport. Baseball has shed a permanent light on my life that i do not think will be extinguished anytime soon.

My Future

Everyone has a dream of what they want to become in life. Although each person's dream is different from one another, they all share one common goal. That goal is to be successful. No matter what i choose to do in life i want to be successful. Success is a word that at often times is hard to define. One persons interpretation of success can be completely different from another, even though they both define success as that person sees it. My definition of success however is finding something you are passionate about and excelling each and every day at doing just that.

With so many options and career paths as a freshman in college, it can be difficult to distinguish what exactly your niche is. I have only been a full time college student for one semester now and many of the ideas i had envisions of doing i have already found out are not for me. Although i may often seem confused at times because i am partly clueless when it comes to want i want to do, i know that i am becoming closer to being successful in my life because i am deleting ideas i had from my life that i have found out i am truly not passionate about.

One day i hope to find exactly what it is i was meant to do in this world. Whether that day be tomorrow, or a couple years from now i know that i am on the right path to find it and one day will succeed at doing it. Success is completely what you make of it.

Thanksgiving Sports Memory

One of the very first Thanksgiving memories I have is learning how to throw a football with my Dad and Uncle. I remember clearly that chilly Thanksgiving day. My uncle kept asking me to throw the football with him but at the time i was so young i really had never played any sport before so i was scared. He and my dad took me outside and spent what seemed like hours with me teach me how to throw and catch a football.

After a while i got the hang of it. I was throwing spirals, sloppy spirals that is, at such a young age and i couldn't of felt better about myself if i tried. I remember how happy they were they taught me and that made me even happier to see me make my two roles models happy.

Still to this day, every time i throw a football I'll have glimpses of that very moment. I still think about the words they were telling me on how to throw a football as they flash through my head right before I'm about to do it. Every NFL game on Thanksgiving i think about how all those soon to be greats started with football. The way you were introduced to a sport really does stick with you for a lifetime.

Thanksgiving Memory

Whenever November comes around many thoughts float through my head. Thanksgiving is here and the holiday spirit is now in full effect. It is a time where family and friends gather and become closer with one another. It is a time where we stuff as much food as we can into our little human bodies. In other words, it is my favorite time of year.

One memory that always comes to mind when i think of Thanksgiving is of my little cousin Katie. We were all at my house waiting on the food to get done, at this time she was about 6 years old, and she was carrying around a little barbie polaroid camera taking pictures of everything. After taking pictures all day she has one polaroid paper left and she wanted to save it to get a group photo of all my family together. We all huddled up and got ready and right before she took the picture she was complaining her camera wasn't working. At that moment she looked right down at it and the camera snapped a picture. Everybody was crying laughing as her last photo was just used on a useless picture. It was so funny and cute and although she was crying, it just made it that much funnier.

Each year at Thanksgiving we all remind my cousin of that day and it brings back laughs each time. This is what i think Thanksgiving is all about, being around your family and loved ones and making ever lasting memories with them.

Anti-Ad Opposition View

Michael Vick's incident with dog fighting and gaining proceeds from these fights is looked at by most of society as inhumane and cruel. The torture and slaughter of innocent dogs for ones pure entertainment and financial gains is clearly illegal and looked at as just plain out wrong. On the other hand it really may not have been as wrong as what most of the public perceived it as.

Vick grew up in a financially depressed and crime stricken area from birth until he went away to college at Virginia Tech. Think about growing up in an area for the first 18 years of your life and the only way of life you know is how people live in that poor crime stricken area you've been enclosed in for your whole life. Where Vick grew up many illegal things were just a way of life, somewhat of a culture he developed throughout the years from living in his surroundings.

One of those illegal things Vick and many other people around the world growing up in the same sort of culture witness is dog fighting. It is a staple to many poverty stricken communities to fight and place bets to gain money on the fighting skills of dogs. Although it is illegal, in small communities it is often looked over as a normal activity and has a very strong underground system in which it operates under.

Not knowing any better because this is how he was raised for the first 18 years of his life, it may of been hard just to suddenly drop such activities that have been part of his social culture since before he could remember. Many NFL teammates and opposing players who have grown up in the same sort of situation supported Vick by this very argument.

This does not change the fact that dog fighting is illegal, but past personal history and the culture someone grew up in should be looked at and taken into consideration before the extent of charges are distributed upon an individual such as Michael Vick.

Ad Buster Image Ideas

For my ad buster I plan to base it on Nike's Just Do It ad campaign like the image above. Instead of the face on the ad I displayed above, I would put a picture of The Honeybadger's face like this one:

For the famous Nike swoosh, i want to form the swoosh out of marijuana leaves.