With a portfolio of arguably bad photos from Cal games, I saw that CalBears.com listed photo credit as GoldenBearSports.com, found their contact information online and sent them an email (I wrote a blog post about it) This is me at my first game. I was so excited!!!

Side note: My parents bought my boyfriend at the time, who attended another school, tickets so he could go to the game. I still remember being so excited and him calling me to say "your backpack looks dorky" while I told him how excited I was and how cool I thought it was to photograph a Cal game, he said "I would think it was cool if you photographed the Warriors"...
While I consider myself very independent and self-motivated, I cannot stress enough the importance of surrounding yourself with people who lift you up. Thankfully at the time, I had friends and family who believed in me. I am so thankful for my family, friends and spouse who support me emotionally through every chapter of my career.