Genuinely Giancarlo

Yesterday, I had the incredible privilege of watching as my high school's football team took home the state championship trophy, capping off an incredible undefeated season.  And I couldn't be any happier. In all honesty, yesterday was one of the best days of my life. The excitement and hype lasted from when I got out of bed in the morning to when I collapsed into that same bed 19 hours later, exhausted but still exhilarated from the day's events. So allow me here to explain exactly what made yesterday so great. In order to understand some things, you'll need a little bit of background. I go to Bingham High School. Bingham has a long and fairly consistent story of success and triumph in most areas, but especially in football, and especially in the past few years. Since 2006, Bingham has won the state football championship six times, including yesterday (2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016), which is quite an impressive record. Last year, Bingham was expected to ...

Tonight, I will attend a high school football game, like I do every Friday during the first few months of school. I'll get suited up, face paint on, cheers ready, camera in hand. I'll be ready for all the fun and the excitement that naturally comes with any football game. But for me, this isn't just any football game. This one is special. So why is this one so different for me? Well, I've attended both of the high schools that are playing each other. Yep. Tonight I'll be cheering on my Bingham Miners as they take on my West Jordan Jaguars in what will likely be one of the most special games (to me) that I'll ever watch. So you could say I'm excited. Jaguar from Birth: I'm sitting on Santa's lap wearing a sweet "West Jordan Jags" sweatshirt. Christmastime, 2007 A Little Bit of Background If you just started following my blog or you don't know me very well, fear not. I'll catch you up. I grew up in West Jordan, Utah d...

A little less than a year ago, I was faced with a decision. My family had just moved into a new house, and I honestly and genuinely enjoyed the experience of moving to a different place (granted, we had moved less than five miles, but it was a change). Unfortunately, this move had taken me away from where I was going to school, at West Jordan High. Not far enough to force an immediate switch, but far enough to consider moving to the much closer enigma that was Bingham High School at the start of the next school year. I was in a tough position. I loved West Jordan. I loved seeing all my friends each day and I was intensely attached to the familiarity that I felt there. But West Jordan was more than twice as far away as Bingham, and I needed to make a choice. Should I stay at WJ for the rest of my high school career, or should I take a chance by switching to Bingham and dive headfirst into something brand new, hoping for the best? I am not ashamed to admit that for a period of several...

Yesterday, I had the chance to watch my school's basketball team take on the Copper Hills Grizzlies (an all-too-familiar foe) in the Utah 5A state championship game. It was an exciting game, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The best part was when the final buzzer sounded, and it was truly official: We were state champions! And it was sweet! As a school, we were just so pumped and so happy and, for a minute, the cliques dissolved and we became what we should always be: a family. We were so overrun with joy and thrilled with the electricity of victory that we didn't care about social circles. For that moment, we were all friends, and it's a moment I will try to never forget. So yeah, you could say I was pretty happy. But yesterday, I discovered that along with utmost jubilation comes the inevitable heartbreak. While we were celebrating the win, the students and the players at Copper Hills were feeling the depths of frustration and sorrow and sadness and everything el...

AS A NOTE: I wrote this post yesterday and intended to post it yesterday for "Best Friend Friday" but the spacing and the formatting of the pictures were both way off so I just decided that rather than waiting for a full week, I'd just post it today. As you'll remember, a few weeks ago I tried to institute something new into this blog. I called it "Best Friend Friday", generally meaning that I would simply write a post about one of my friends each Friday. Clearly, my follow-through on that idea has fallen pretty short. From now on, Best Friend Friday will not be an occurrence that repeats each and every week, but something that happens every once in a while at my own judgment. That way, I won't feel like I've failed if I miss a Friday, and I won't rush and post something lazy just because I feel like I have to. Cool? So this edition of Best Friend Friday is pretty special. It's special because I'm not highlighting any one person, but...