In the winter of 2016, I was given the chance of a lifetime to interview for the National Football League for the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston, Texas. They reached back out to me a few weeks later and notified me that I had gotten the job. I never thought that I would work for the NFL and in my freshman year of college.

I had been hired as an Area Manager for the 2017 NFL Experience. The area manager's job was to oversee 10-15 volunteers at a particular station, game, or photo-op. It's a pretty easy job until you have volunteers go on breaks or if someone gets hurt or when there is technological difficulties. I would not have traded this experience for anything in the world. It gave me a glimpse into the wonderful world of professional sports and I want to give y'all a brief snapshot into what happened that week.

Saturday January 28:

I arrived for my shift at 3:00 and I was strangely nervous. I am almost never nervous but this was different. This job had the chance to completely change my life. We're given our assignments and sent on our way. When I arrived to my station, the Fed-Ex Ground Challenge, I felt at peace and I just knew that it was going to be a great week.

I chatted briefly with the Area Manager that I was taking over for and then went and introduced myself to the volunteers. This first Saturday was not a busy day considering that it was the first day the NFL Experience was open. But that gave me the chance to interact with the participants and the volunteers.

That first night, I was talking to some of the volunteers as we were closing up and we were talking about our favorite NFL teams. This one older gentleman told me that he was a huge Steelers fan. In fact, he owns every single one of the Super Bowl Rings the Steelers have. He showed me a picture of them and yes that was amazing to see, but I loved seeing how excited he got when he talked about them. We all parted our ways, which was around 11pm that night and went home.

I arrived back at my dorm around midnight and I told my roommate all of the things that I saw and heard and experienced that day. I was exhausted but I was beyond ready to go back the next day.

Sunday, January 29:

I had to be back at work by 2 pm the next day and I was beyond excited to get back down there. I just had a feeling that today was going to be a great day. I had maybe been there for an hour and a half when I noticed a large amount of security and fans following the security. Then they stopped right in front of where I was working and Case Keenum the Los Angeles Rams quarterback was there watching the kids run through the game I was managing. A little while later, Arian Foster a former Houston Texans running-back, walked by and even to see them walk by was a surreal experience.

You watch them week after week on TV but you never think that you would be in the same vicinity as them. Even more amazing for me as the week went on was how desensitized I became to having professional football players around. It became a completely normal thing for me, which in reality is not a normal every day thing.

The day went by quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go home. I got off of work earlier that day which meant that I went to bed earlier. The rest was much needed.

Monday, January 30:

I wasn't scheduled to work on Monday because of my classes and conflicts. While I was grateful for the rest and break, I was bored and wanted to go back and work. I was enjoying myself so much at the NFL Experience that I genuinely missed it.

But Monday was a nice relaxing day and it allowed me to get ahead on assignments since I would be working the rest of the week.

Tuesday, January 31:

Right after my classes ended on Tuesday, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and was ready to go to work. I worked from 3-11 pm that night, but it was a memorable night to say the least.

When I got down to my game, the volunteers were excited and ready to go and everything was running smoothly. Then we had a run-in with a very odd individual. We had seen people decked out in their favorite team's merchandise, but this was a whole other level.

This man comes into the game with his three sons. His sons are all wearing Detroit Lions jerseys and shorts, nothing out of the ordinary. But then I look at the dad, and he's wearing a Detroit Lions jersey, football pants, cleats, and has a helmet with him. It was extremely hard to not laugh when I saw him. If there had been an award for most spirited football fan, it would have gone to him 100%.

Other than that, the day went smoothly and we had no complaints. The event was getting busier as the week went on, but nothing would or could prepare for me for what was coming on Friday and Saturday.

Wednesday, February 1

I worked the late shift all week so from 3-11 pm each day I was at the NFL Experience making sure everything was running without a hitch.

My station happened to be right next to the NFL Network booth, so there were always football players around. However, we had several big names come out that night. Kurt Warner, a former Arizona Cardinals quarterback, and Michael Irvin, football legend and former Dallas Cowboys wide-receiver, were both being interviewed during the time I was working. They drew a huge crowd and I was able to get a glimpse of them, even though I wasn't able to get a picture of them.

Still, being in their presence at all was something special. I felt like I belonged there and that this is what I was meant to do. It was truly electrifying.

Thursday, February 2:

The sheer amount of people at this event was increasing steadily until Thursday. And then it just shot up and we were extremely understaffed as far as volunteers go. But, we were all able to still have fun.

Patriots and Falcons fans were everywhere, as to be expected, but to my surprise there were plenty of Steelers and Packers fans too. Patriots fans are not my favorite as they were sometimes rude to some of my volunteers and to myself, but I would say that I never had a terrible experience with one single person. The Falcons fans were by far my favorite as they were just excited to be there and their southern charm made me smile.

Friday, February 3:

My time at the NFL Experience was coming to an end and I was genuinely saddened by this. I was having such a great time with the volunteers, my co-workers, and the general atmosphere.

On Friday, I met one of the biggest NFL stars right now, Le'Veon Bell, the Steelers star running back. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He was doing an appearance at one of the other stations, but he still took time out of his day to talk to me briefly. I wasn't able to get a picture with him, but I was able to get multiple pictures of him. I could tell that he has such a kind heart and he was happy to be there interacting with the kids.

That single experience was something that I will carry with me through the rest of my life. It's so easy for these professional sports players to become egotistical, but he wasn't letting the "fame" get to his head.

At the end of the night, we had tallied up how many people had come to the NFL Experience that day, and there was around 40,000 people there. It was absolute madness.

Saturday, February 4:

Saturday was my last day, and by far the most hectic day. I arrived early and they immediately put me to work.

Within the first hour that I was working, we had two children get minor scrapes on their arms so I had to run to take them to first aid. There were too many people in the building for the medics to get to any station quickly, so we had to take them ourselves. I'm sure that anyone that saw me must of thought I was crazy running around the convention center.

We didn't have any more injuries that night and the rest of the night went smoothly. At our end of the night meeting after we closed, we had tallied that around 85,000 people had come to the event. It was absolutely crazy.

I would not have traded that week for anything. It was a great opportunity to learn about myself, what I want to do with my life, and to experience something that not many people will be able to do. I want to thank the University of Houston for giving your students the opportunity to do this. I want to thank the NFL for hiring college students and being so accommodating with our class schedule. I want to thank my co-workers for being so kind to me even though I was the youngest out of all of us. I also want to thank my parents, for pushing me to even apply for this job, without y'all I would never had gone for this opportunity. Finally, I want to thank my roommates and friends for staying up late and listening to all of my stories and blabbering on and on about sports.

This truly was the ultimate NFL Experience.