Dilema for ME!!! in Sports

I was just called and asked to photograph the Women's Volleyball NCAA Final Four for UCLA in Nebraska. http://uclabruins.cstv​.com …y/spec-rel/121006aaa.html

The Semi's are Thursday. And Finals would then be Saturday it seems(which my editor told me wrong).

I have my finals this week due Thursday and Friday(physically have to be handed into the department office). Of course I can turn them in early.

Then I have the Lakers game at 6:30 on Sunday.

What do you do? Craziness. I guess the moral of the story is do everything early for school.

that is a tough one Greg. i think that i would make sure that i have everything done for school before i jump on a plain to Nebraska however, there is no way that i would pass on the chance to shoot the Lakers or even the NCAA..

i am sure that you will manage just fine

Yeah, Im hurt. This is UCLA's chance to win their 100th national championship.
Too much unknown, so i think im siding towards the not going, since i'd have to leave late Wednesday night or early Thursday.

I lose some extra days for that Friday paper, which is my toughest final.
I'm for sure not going to scarifice the opportunity to photograph a Lakers game.

Now I e-mail two of my professors to see if I can work something out. This is craziness!! .

That is a truly tough call....

I'm no goody two shoes who believes in 'study first' blah blah (I have cut classes to go on a photo op ), but the executive decision comes down to basically how much damage will it do, how valuable is the photo op, are there any other options and above all which is the primary mission.

For me it was easy.. those were non-essentials and I could easily make it up some other time, but for finals.. I'm afraid that having so much invested in college - that might just be the primary mission.

It's a tough call and I sympathize. Let us know how you go....

Well my goal of getting a 4.0 at UCLA still remains one of my highest priorities. I think I wouldnt' have a problem with the Lakers game at 6:30. If they played in the finals, and we flew back, I'd have 2 hours more in CA.

This sucks, because they want to send me because I'm their best volleyball shooter. So I feel honored and want to live up to that, but then.

It's just the finals....pretty much now, I think.
I need to clone myself!!

4.0?! Oi, you suck

Anyway.. get offline and see if you can rush the papers! Good luck in your quest.. it may yet work!

Take the finals and stay home. The Huskies are going to win it all, anyways.

I hope you can work something out. It sounds like an amazing opportunity, and I know I would have tried to make allowances for things like that when I was a Graduate Assistant teaching and grading.

focus on your exams grego. i know its tough to do. i had to give up a photoshop seminar i really wanted to attend for my exams. it can seem tough at the time but in the end its more worth it to focus on education.

Hey Greg! Congrats on the offer. However, if you're on pace for a 4.0 at UCLA, I think you already know the answer to this question. That is, unless your professors are willing to work something out with you.

ibdb wrote in post #2385592
Take the finals and stay home. The Huskies are going to win it all, anyways.

I hope you can work something out. It sounds like an amazing opportunity, and I know I would have tried to make allowances for things like that when I was a Graduate Assistant teaching and grading.

Well UCLA's team is the only one of the 4 not to have dropped a set so far. Of course, that doesn't mean anything once the teams play. They did beat Wash in the opener(was an awesome match i got to cover).

Billginthekeys wrote in post #2385642
focus on your exams grego. i know its tough to do. i had to give up a photoshop seminar i really wanted to attend for my exams. it can seem tough at the time but in the end its more worth it to focus on education.

Yeah, my priority is still the classes. I set this 4.0 challenge for myself. I came close last winter quarter(A, A, A-) which is a 3.91(with 14 units).

But I'm still at that current aim. I'm talking with teachers and trying to see what I can do.

It's my senior year, so i'm really trying. I got the UCLA-USC football game. I'm going to try for more men's bball as time goes by. But I've been following w. volleyball all year, so I kinda want to see them win and then of course the 100th. But you are right. So I'm finding ways to negoiate everything.

Rumjungle wrote in post #2385719
Hey Greg! Congrats on the offer. However, if you're on pace for a 4.0 at UCLA, I think you already know the answer to this question. That is, unless your professors are willing to work something out with you.

Yeah, they've both responded. I'm just trying to get confirmation from one teacher. She said I could e-mail it(the one due Friday), but there's also a book that I have been reading/annotating that is due, so I'm asking if I could mail it in(post marked of course).

So we'll see there.

Sheer, utter craziness!!

Thanks all!!!

Well if anyone was placing bets on what I was going to do. I decided on declining.
I weighed all the factors and defintely did not want to miss the Lakers game.

What one of my teachers replied back saying:

she was sort of disappointed.


Thanks everyone for the well wishes and support and advice!!

So she let you off the hook?

Lightstream wrote in post #2387449
So she let you off the hook?

I asked two of my professors to be flexible with my schedule and once I knew I had to their okays, i considered my situation. During that time, I still read/did my studying.

After considering all options, i knew everything would have to fit perfectly for me to achieve my goal. If I was prepared for one of those finals, then I probably would have gone.

I aired on the side of caution, i guess.

sucks you can't go. I'm sure that would have been a great game. I wish my team would have won a game. all they needed was one win to go to the playoffs and they lost 6 straight. but I had fun photographing the vball games. btw, went through ur paper's site, nice photos. what are you using to capture all those shots? oh and good luck with finals, i will be done tomorrow as soon as I finish my last two finals.