If you're expecting me to write some cheesy opening about how "Holy Moses! There's a female on the sports page!" … forget it. Not gonna happen.
I'm also not going to try to impress you by rattling off an infinite amount of sports factoids to prove I can hold my own with the boys. I'll be the first to point out that I know more about "Back to the Future" than I will ever know about ERAs, the NBA Hall of Fame or Urban Meyer's offensive strategy.
What I will do is admit that, yes, I am a female in a profession dominated by men, and yes, that does make for some unusual experiences.
Like the time I conducted an interview with former forward Chris Richard after the Gators earned a berth to the Final Four, and all that separated him from me was a white, terry cloth towel.
Some females may go gaga at the thought of the basketball players after they take their postgame showers, but I'd like to state for the record now that I am a professional and act as such. Plus, it's not like I actually saw anything, so get your mind out of the gutter.
I know being a female in this business is going to be tough, and I have listened to more-experienced women reporters tell their tales about discrimination in the locker room and the office.
But I have been pretty lucky so far, and don't really have any horror stories.
I started off as the men's golf beat writer and… let's face it, they were happy to get any coverage.
Then came volleyball for a few months, and since I share the same anatomy as the players, I was safe there, too.
After that was men's basketball, and I can honestly say Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey are some of the nicest, funniest and most considerate people I've ever encountered.
Now, my life at the Alligator is a different story.
There's a new poster in the sports office featuring a busty blonde and a brunette, both dressed like strippers, pretending to play beer pong, and the tagline reads: "College: Two racks, two balls, one historic night."
While no one has ever been downright mean to me at the office, let's be real… life with a bunch of boys is not always fun.
I spend countless hours trapped in a car listening to whose fantasy baseball player is a bigger stud.
Instead of watching reruns of "That '70s Show" or "Gilmore Girls," I fall asleep to SportsCenter in an overcrowded hotel room.
Then comes the ridicule, the eye-rolling and the exaggerated sighs I receive for not knowing things like how many consecutive games Cal Ripken Jr. played in.
OK, so I didn't realize until this summer that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was once Lewis Alcindor, but I'm fairly certain I could beat each and every one of my male co-workers in a game of HORSE. Two of them can already attest to that.
Besides, I still get my little victories every once in a while.
As the only girl, I'm guaranteed a spot in a bed at the hotel room, and considering some of the low-budget places the Alligator crew is forced to stay at, I'll take the chivalry any day.
There was also the time when I got a fellow Alligator columnist to belt out the lyrics to 'N Sync's "I Want You Back," as we drove home from the men's basketball SEC Tournament.
Yes, 'N Sync is on my iPod… but what did you expect? I am a girl, after all.
