Lessons Learned Pushing Buttons

Last week, I heard the last buzzer of my high school basketball scorekeeper career. It came at the heels of a short, two year stint working for the Marshall School Athletic Department. During these years I learned many things about sports, friends, and life.

1: Basketball is a pretty fast paced game. If you don't pay attention for the whole game, you can easily miss calls or points. 

2: Pierce R is a great guy. As my coworker, we spent countless nights and endless hours together, and this strengthened our friendship. There are people in my class who I really want to keep in touch with after high school, and Pierce is definitely on that list.

3: My multitasking skills are much better now than before I started the job. Pierce and I got very good (too good, maybe?) at talking while working (or I should say snide remarks...) 

4: Getting flustered after a mistake does no one any good. I occasionally would mess up a score or foul count which usually resulted in a coach or assistant coach not-so-nicely telling me to change it. This seemed to always be while I was watching a referee to get a number for a foul. At first, I would struggle to not get flustered but would end up doing it anyway. After several instances of this, I realized that everything would go smoother if I just blocked out everything except what I was trying to do. This made fixing mistakes much easier and less embarrassing. 

5: This job was one of my first steady sources of income, and as such it was a learning opportunity. I had to learn how to save my money and deposit checks (which I now do all on my phone: very convenient.) This money also helped me afford gas, which is a necessity for one who lives 25 miles from school.

Reflecting on this job, I would do it all over again if I had the chance. Working a couple nights a week worked perfectly into my schedule, and it allowed me to watch all of my sister's home basketball games, which was really cool. Being the button pusher turned out to be an important part of my life during the late fall and early winter.