mattlawyue

An unactivated, uncharged BlackBerry Storm is laying next to the Fall Preview, Double Issue of New York Magazine. Two recorders are bunched with a couple of headphones, a Gay Talese book, three reporters notebooks and a Classic ChapStick. Three bags, one suitcase and a towering pile of SLAM magazines litter the floor. Print-outs of my flight and hotel itineraries are ready to be stuffed into a manila folder. Wale’s “More About Nothing” mixtape is working my speakers. I leave for Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday.

The primary reason for this three week excursion is to cover the World Basketball Championships for SLAM magazine and SLAMonline. Besides basketball, which I’m very much looking forward to, I want to explore a foreign, culturally-rich city, sans tour guide. Living alone, half-way across the world, will surely test me. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Certainties of this trip are:

• Dates and times of games I need to cover
• My flight and hotel

Absolutely everything else is up in the air, leaving the door ajar for a potentially anxiety infused experience - dangerous for a black-and-white person. Shades of gray have never been my strong suit. Knowing the facts and having a deadline are my comfort zone. At this point I’m at ease with learning and adapting to intricacies of new stadiums. Interviewing players, analyzing the game and reporting are my strengths, relative to handling uncertainty outside of magazine journalism.

With that said, I’m uncharacteristically loving the unknown. At 22 years old, I’m ready for this test. I’m prepared to go with things. My life has always been dictated by a “plan,” which has never seen failure, consequently giving me no real reason to question myself. Granted, Turkey did become part of the plan a while back. But now that it’s arrived in a hurry, I want it to be free of agenda, free of circumstance.

So, I’ll see you in three weeks. Leave your name and address if you fancy a postcard. I’ll be tweeting from @mlawyue during the games and updating Knickled & Dimed for game analysis, but I’m going to limit my interaction with the Internet and everybody from home. No Facebook, which I’m trying to wean myself off of completely anyway, and no GChat.

Peace,

ML