First Day Adversity

May 27th 5:55 am -- On a rainy early Houston morning at United Continental Airport, there I stood waiting at my gate to fly to St. Louis Missouri for my life-changing experience for Sports Journalism Institute (SJI) in Columbia, Missouri. This was Memorial Day weekend in Houston where severe thunderstorms plowed through all parts of the city causing plenty delays in flights, including mine.

Although it was not the end of the world, I was stuck at the airport for eight-nine hours to only end up in Houston. My first flight cancelled due to operations, I did not make the standby list for next flight, and the rain only increase throughout the process.

May 28th 5:00 a.m. -- Back at the same airport, the weather was clear with no sight of rain from the record breaking rainfall day within 24 hours in the city of Houston. My flight was on time at 6:00 a.m. going to Atlanta  and then leaving from Atlanta at 9:50 a.m. to finally reach my destination in St. Louis. I was the last person to arrive at Columbia. I arrived to the University of Missouri to meet with my intern class and I was thrown into covering the Kansas City Royals vs White Sox baseball game.

The score was 7-1 in the top of the ninth where Chicago had a comfortable lead. My story was wrapped up to turn into Greg Lee but that was when the magic happened. The Royals scored seven straight runs to defeat the White Sox 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth. The class had five minutes to turn the story in. The hassle and intensity from the moment I entered the airport the first morning to my first class session at SJI was a mind blowing experience. -- Canaan Cadwell