Kobe Bryant’s Death

If you’re a basketball fan like me, the death of Kobe Bryant probably hit you like a pile of bricks! On January 26th, 2020 the sports world would change forever when a private helicopter carrying Lakers star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others brutally crashed into a hill in the Hollywood area. I remember I was at work when I read the news on Twitter and it didn’t seem real. I conversed with my fellow co-workers and everyone was completely shocked when they heard this information. I still haven’t internalized the totality of it sitting here on my bed typing over a week later. Kobe was my entire childhood and although I was usually rooting against his teams he shaped so many of my great sports memories as a kid and contributed a great deal to the American culture as a whole. Even disregarding the sports world, Kobe was a great father to his kids and a father figure for kids who grew up without a dad in their life.

The crash happened on a route his family had flown many times before: from the Southern Los Angeles area to the Northern Los Angeles suburbs. They were flying to a basketball game for Kobe’s daughter Gianna under very foggy conditions that they needed special permission to fly in. The pilot was instructed to hold before landing by the air traffic controller because of the air traffic going around. The pilot told air traffic control he was “going to climb higher to avoid a cloud layer” and that was his last transmission. Furthermore, helicopter crashes are more difficult to investigate since they don’t have the same “black box” recorders that are prevalent in planes. This tragedy has people all over America utterly devastated and people have been showing their thanks for Kobe in a multitude of ways. Buildings in Los Angeles have been displaying his picture, along with the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the tallest building in the world). Fans gathered outside of the Staples Center to throw their Kobe’s shoes/jerseys in a pile in remembrance of the legend. Although it’s very sad that’s he’s gone, he left behind an iconic legacy that will be cherished for the rest of time.

Love you Kobe

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.