Naked on camera

12/2 - The end of the semester is almost over. Wow. That went quickly. My last lecture is next week, and that's the one where I give an oral presentation/speech. I'm looking forward to it, and I volunteered to go first (and then I explained to my classmates me going first would lower the bar for them, thus making them look good). It feels like I've been here for a long time, but the crazy thing is, I've still got so much more to go. I'll be here for a while.

At chalkboard, the football team was disappointed in itself as a whole. We did some great things on both sides of the ball, such as racking up more than 300 yards of offense and getting eight sacks on defense, but we also recorded 12 missed tackles, three fumbles and two interceptions. We made too many mistakes to win. So when Coach Charlie began the meeting, he gave us all flowers to signify the fact we all screwed ourselves over during that game. So the least we can do is give ourselves flowers. He used much more colorful sentence enhancers during the meeting, which aren't appropriate for this blog.

We saw our game film. Charlie pulled a 7-second clip which turned out to be my pass deflection, and he showed it to the whole defense. I know I got a hand on the ball, but until seeing the video, I didn't realize the opposing receiver had the ball in his hands before I knocked it out. I thought I got to it before it even touched his hands. That was surprising. (The video below is obviously much higher quality on my computer, but it got all grainy when I put it here. Oh, well. You can still see what happens.)

The guy I knocked the ball away from is the guy who was talking so much trash. I think he ran his mouth after this play, and one of my teammates, Tom, another linebacker, yelled at me to talk back. I told him no, because that's what the other guy wants me to do. 

12/3 - Today was another day of firsts for me. I woke up very early and got to campus for 8 a.m. football practice to work on coverage on passing situations. It was a good way to start the day, though it was frigidly cold. It got me awake and prepared to get naked on camera later.

That's right. I can now say I've been naked on camera.

I was helping a German girl named Amelie with her photo project (something that is due on Friday, so she left it to the last minute), which involved photographing people shedding a second skin and showing vulnerability. It was an artistic shoot, and I worked with a flesh-colored sheet, so I did poses where I curled into a ball or draped the sheet across my shoulders or around my body. There was another guy named Allan who volunteered himself, and I waited outside until they finished. I think he was a little nervous.

Kate said I was mad to do it, but I honestly felt very comfortable. There was a point where I didn't care if Amelie saw more than necessary; it was liberating, and I found I would much rather do a nude photo shoot than do public speaking. I'd definitely do it again if I had the chance. Now I kind of know what it's like to be photographed for the Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine.

In hindsight, I realized this was another one of those things you don't know if you'll like unless you try it, like eating snails or listening to a different genre of music. It was another chance to grow; I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. Plus, it's a great story!

Hopefully I get to see the pictures next week.