How I Got Here, Part I
No, it this is not what it sounds like. I think most people who can read this know about the birds and the bees. In a moment of down time, I thought I’d share in greater detail about my story, and how I came to write a NASCAR blog.
It’s my wife’s fault. Really. For years (about 14), she’s listened to me express all kinds of opinions about all kinds of things- from politics to religion, music, sports, you name it. She finds my points of view humorous and in her somewhat-biased opinion she finds me well-spoken. Remember- this is her opinion, not necessarily mine. In spite of her reputation as this demure, soft-spoken damsel, she has taken the world of blogging by storm. The traffic she gets on her two blogs compared to mine is like comparing Jeff Green to Jeff Gordon (with me being Green). She figured if she (not being the natural communicator between us) could have so much fun doing this, then this should be Christmas Day for me- becoming something like the Rush Limbaugh of NASCAR. If you know my politics, then you know I’d take that as a way serious compliment.
Now my mom can tell you this should be no surprise. According to my dear mother, I spoke my first words at around 6 months of age. And on some days, she’d tell you I haven’t stopped since. She also knows that I grabbed on with both hands when I embraced the world of sports around the age of 12. You can blame the Portland Trail Blazers for that. Bill Walton and Company bringing an NBA championship to the Northwest birthed in me a passion for the game. All kinds of games: baseball, football, and yes, auto racing. I was more of an Indy 500 guy (my favorite was A.J. Foyt, because he was from Texas, like my dad), but I do remember watching the World 600 and watching this clown from Kentucky named Darrell Waltrip visiting Victory Lane. Interesting stuff- but I can’t say the passion really hit at that point.
I was always more of a stick and ball guy, and once aspired become an NFL running back or receiver. To be the best, you had to study the best- that’s why I watched game after game to study the likes of Steve Largent, Earl Campbell, and Roger Staubach. I still followed the other sports to keep my options open. What I didn’t count on as a young teenager was the heredity factor.
You see, at 5 feet 7 inches tall, I’m closer to Jeff Gordon in size than I am La Danian Tomlinson. To make matters worse, I don’t possess the blinding speed of Warrick Dunn to offset my lack of stature. I stubbornly held out hope on this dream, but denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, so I hung on desperately to my dream until finally giving up on professional sports at the age of 18.
With some wind taken out of my sails, I headed off to college to prepare for a "real job" at the age of 19 with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. There was good money in it (more than being a coach and teacher, like I had once considered) and it might pave the way to a political career (we won’t get into that here. Other than to say that at age 12, I concocted a plan to be president by age 40. LOL!).
After a year of college, and thanks to an eye-opening course taught by the illustrious Paul Pavlich, I decided 7 years of school was too big a commitment for criminal law, and all that Perry Mason stuff, while it made for good television, was not quite as close to reality as I wanted to believe.
Where would my dreams take me now? I have an old college friend, Dawn Nestor to thank for where the road would lead next………
(TO BE CONTINUED..SERIOUSLY FOLKS THIS IS A NASCAR BLOG, COME BACK AND YOU’LL SEE)
