Over spring break, I traveled to North Carolina and when I travel, I like to visit popular filming locations from television shows/movies. With that in mind, I went to the UNC campus to see some of the filming locations for the television series “The Summer I Turned Pretty”. When I got there, I came across a lady named Katlyn Taylor, who is the manager of the sports facility operations that has the job roles of handling the set up with pyros for fireworks for touchdown celebrations, coordinating events, speaker check/arrangement for public announcements, background music, managing memberships, and flashing arena lights. The job roles all require well-formed communication within the part-time employes that she hires to help. This isn’t just for football games but all sport games at that facility. The sport games at that facility do not happen without her. She is 24 years old with a lot of ambition, ready to help others in need. She grew up in North Carolina and does not have any kids or a husband yet, as she has a lot to take on with her career. She graduated from that very same college, so the place is very symbolic for her. As we discussed my assignment and my search for a pen-pal, it came across as awkward at first because I wasn’t sure if I was communicating the assignment properly, but she was happy to want to help make a change in mental awareness for athletes. She enjoyed expressing her experiences throughout the interview of questions. She knows all the right people at that sports facility and in the area that I could pitch some mental health ideas to within the sports programs.
I thought her job description was cool because that is almost like the kind of work that I currently do at concerts. Her position has a completely different experience than mine though. Since she has access to being on the sidelines during the games, she sees players get injured all the time, players struggling to deal with it, and the strain that too much competitiveness can put on players. It began the conversation of trying to figure out what we could do to improve mental health within athletes. We came across some small ideas in the interview, such as playing more positive music in the background of the games instead of competitive dominating songs. We both feel strongly about wanting to improve the system for mental health in a big way, because there is always room for improvement. With her sport connections and our education and experiences, I am confident that we can find a way to improve athletes’ mental health. We just have to continue working together to find sufficient ways to help mental health for athletes. She has agreed to stay in contact with me. We will continue to email each other new ideas once a week along with establishing new connections with potential career employers for mental health focus amongst athletes. I think that we can both help each other with our careers in the long run.