02/15/2026
Today my husband had me watch a famous ESPN video about a kid named J Mac—an autistic kid who managed his high school’s basketball team. On Senior night his coach decided to put him in the game so that he could have the experience of playing on the team and the kid absolutely crushed it, scoring 6 3-pointers and winning the game. It’s a pretty famous story and anyone can look up the specifics, but it was mind blowing what he went out there and did and the excitement everyone showed for him—not just for how much he scored, but because he got the chance. He became the hero of his school, the entire auditorium rushing the court after the final buzzer. At the end of the segment, the coach was interviewed and said how emotional it made him to help make a young man’s dream come true. The narrator ended the segment with, “what we all want in life, is a shot…” This was my shot. I’ll never forget opening the email from live nation telling me I was approved to photograph for the DNA World Tour. As a lifelong fan and a photographer, it was the absolute best thing that could have happened to me, short of being hired as their full time photographer. 😂 I remember standing at the end of the stage in the pit, shaking from nerves and excitement. I remember having to prop my camera up on the stage to steady my lens so I wouldn’t get blurry photos from my shaking hands. It felt like somebody gave me a shot. At the time I think I’d only photographed maybe three other concerts. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I felt confident I would crush it, because when something is important to me, I give it everything I’ve got. I felt seen, noticed, understood, celebrated—all the feelings of value we attribute to being given a chance to do something important or something we love. In life, we all just want our shot.
