For most high school students, getting a college education is the next step in their long road to becoming an adult. Some have a generalized idea of what they want to study; others might go to college with an open mind and find what they want along the way. For me, having an idea just wasn't good enough. I had my goals set since the beginning of my sophomore year. I was going to study anything that would get me behind a camera as much as humanly possible. As my high school career was coming to an end, more and more opportunities were becoming available to me through football, but my primary goal of finding an excellent college program was still number one on my list. After months of recruiting, I took my visit to WT. Just after stepping foot on campus I knew that this university would be my home.

My freshman year went by in a flash because of the time I was spending with football. I was getting frustrated with myself because I lost sight of why I came to this university in the first place. I started to make more time for my school work, and I made time to become more invested in the mass communication department. My sophomore year I joined the Eternal Flame to see if this was indeed what I wanted to focus on for the rest of my life. I didn't know at the time but when I signed up, I made the best decision of my college career. I became more involved with school functions and I found that my social life became a lot more active. I was staying busy enough with football and school throughout my second year so I never had to worry about getting in trouble or anything like that.

I was fortunate enough to land a staff role for the Eternal Flame in my junior year and even though I was moving into more of a leadership role in football, my priorities were beginning to return to the first goal I set for myself in high school and because of that I was able to land an internship with D Magazine.

As far as real-world experience I couldn't have asked for a better internship. Every day I was out running around Dallas covering different stories that our magazine could use and I even got to write a few stories as well. Everything was going great for me at the time but football was weighing heavily on my mind. I loved football but at the same time, I fell out of love with playing the sport. The thought of quitting football was the only thing that gave me comfort. I wanted to stop, but I have never quit anything in my whole life and I saw how proud my parents were of me because of football. I decided to just suck it up for one last year and then I could start my career. On July 5th, my thought process over everything in this world would be flipped upside down. I was in the office working on pictures from an event that I covered the previous evening when I received a call from my mom saying that my friend passed away in a car accident. I dropped everything I was doing and headed home.

The last couple of years have been tough on me because I lost two close friends within a week of each other and I guess Brian was the final straw for me. When I arrived back to Dallas, I called my coach and quit right then. If someone were to ask me what was the most challenging time of my life both mentally and physically, I would say that summer but it was also my biggest life lesson.

It is crazy to think that college is almost over. West Texas A&M has been nothing but good to me and I am forever grateful that I got this incredible opportunity to come here. It is crazy to see how much I have grown since I first came to college. I have met some incredible people and built lifelong friendships. I don't know where I would be in this world if I haven't have gone to WT. West Texas A&M will forever be my home and I wake up thankful every single day that I got this opportunity.