Christmas memories

As many readers of this space well now, my dad and I butted heads about nearly every thing growing up.

My dad said I had no initiative, called me incompetent and stupid and had serious doubt I would make anything of myself. Still, I knew I wanted to become a writer (even though my dad said I’d never make a living at it).

I got a job at the student newspaper at college and made sure I worked hard covering a little of this and whole lot of that t ensure that going off to college wouldn’t be a waste of time and money.

I went off to school and struggled the first year because I had no college prep work in high school and did well enough to get into college without any college prep work.

I admit I had qualms about entering college namely because I was unsure what to expect. Fortunately after a lot of help and a full time job to get me through, I graduated college and moved to Texas.

I found a job xix weeks out of college, which made me ecstatic because I’d heard horror stories of people I graduated with and work at the college paper still being out of work nine months to a year later.

I bounced around at a few jobs for the first few years until I found an all sports job in Taylor that showed promise. Taylor being close enough to Austin was also a chance for me to cover some college sports as well.

I had covered enough UT during my short time there that I was granted credentials for what would be one of the biggest events ever: Ricky Williams expecting to break Tony Dorsett’s career collegiate rushing record.

The day after Thanksgiving 1995 was cloudy but it didn’t look alike it would affect Williams and it didn’t as early in the game he broke Dorsett’s record. Really didn’t talk too much about it until Christmas night.

My parents’ neighbors house was the place to be for after Christmas get together. I had always felt off going there. While everyone was cool and social, I always felt like I didn’t belong.

We found a common subject when the group of about 10 guys talked about Ricky Williams and his future plans.