Hello Professor Rhoden,
My name is Jorge Ian Guajardo. I’m 32 years old, and I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Growing up, I loved sports. I would ask my mom for any copy of Madden I could get my hands on, and from there, my fandom grew. My first love was football. Growing up in the 90’s in Texas, I had no choice but to root for the Cowboys. I’m sad to say I’m still a die-hard to this day.
As I grew, I fell in love with basketball and, most of all, other sports, and decided to devote my youth to the game. I spent way too much time practicing to be mediocre at best, and by the time college came around, no scholarships arrived in my mailbox.
Needless to say, my athletic career was over. Yet, my love for sports never faded, and in fact, had only grown. I decided the best way to stay close to the game was to report on it, call it, and analyze it as a journalist. I liked writing then and thought maybe pursuing this career could be a win.
So I signed up for community college and proceeded to meander through life as young men full of angst do. I dropped out of college three times, the last time being when I enlisted in the United States Navy.
I served for four years as a sonar technician, three of them aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG-54), which was forward-deployed in Japan, where I completed five deployments.
After I was honorably discharged, I knew I never wanted to do that again. I re-enrolled at the University of Texas at El Paso, Go Miners, and completed my degree in multimedia journalism.
Once I graduated, I was introduced to the harsh reality of the media job market and couldn’t find a job. So, I thought I should be decisive and pivot. Well, going back to school made the most sense, ASU seemed like the best choice, so here I am. A proud Sun Devil.
I chose this class because I feel my best writing comes when I let my opinions and thoughts flow, as unbiased and objectively as possible. I had written columns before and felt that with a bit more refinement and teaching, I could hone my skills and write captivating columns for the public.
Columns, column writing, and sports commentary are important proponents of the industry. One of the many things that make sports so great is sports talk, and what gets that talk sparked better than a good column? I know things are different now, and people like Stephen A. Smith can shout their opinions from the mountaintops on TV, but for me, reading a great column still hits different.
Soon, everybody is around the water cooler, wondering if the so-and-so author really is correct about combo guards going the way of the dodo in the NBA. Or whether Dak Prescott can ever get the Cowboys over the hump in the playoffs, or if maybe Aaron Boone has spent one too many seasons as the Yankees skipper (he has).
With that said, the industry is still in a bit of trouble. Print could be going the way of the combo guard, and social media is making spaces for good journalism and related discourse increasingly rare. There are several reasons for this happening, but for me, the main one is Greed.
I still believe in this art and this business. I hope to be a part of a solution that gets people talking about great stories brought to them by great journalists.
