8,030 of my days on this Earth have been spent playing sports with a desired outcome. The outcome may have shifted between different external validators but there was never a time that I played when I didn’t have a clear idea of why.

I started playing football in 3rd grade, starting as pure Recreation.

Yeah, Re-Creation.

I always played because there was a team. My contributions were bigger than me. I always wanted to become a better version of myself. Those stayed true throughout my career.

But then I wanted to be the fastest player in the field – like Maurice Green or Michael Johnson. I wanted to be like the big 7th and 8th graders. And when I got there, I looked up and wanted to be the best varsity high school football player in the state. Then I got the letters in the mail. The coaches showed up in letterman jackets and pulled me out of class.

Collect scholarship offers like unique quarters and be the #1 DE on Rivals.com.

“I’ma go D1.”

I played college football with the goal to play in the NFL. All the power cleans. The 6 am conditioning in winter’s dark of dawn. Me and all my dogs knew the payoff.

“I’ma go league.”

And we competed with each other (little did we know) and every other one of the 80,000 college football players out there.

I played Rookie year for a shot at Year 2. And Year 2 for the second contract. So on and so forth.

“I need that bag.”

With specific external outcomes clearly defined, the “why” of sport was easy to describe, oftentimes being overshadowed

I’ve hung up the cleats and ventured out into the cold, deep, dark waters of the “real world.” With all the changes, sport has served as my life’s anchor. So engrained and sewn into the fabric of my being, I sit here and write this with not comprehension of what life would look like without sport.

Waking up in the morning and training my body first thing offers a sense of familiarity in a new life that is so drastically different from my old.

But it’s not the same. Today, it is not entirely clear and apparent what exactly I am training for. There is not a clear pathway. Or a well-defined, generally accepted payoff. And furthermore, as a product of this ambiguity of path, it is less clear on who exactly I am competing against in my training journey.

I began to ask myself questions that were once easy to answer (at least as it pertained to sport).

What is my goal here? Why am I doing this? What is my payoff? Is there a payoff?

As these questions arose, I looked for answers from those around me. I’ve been inspired. Over the last 12 months I have trained alongside individuals ranging from age 13 with nothing but dreams ahead of them to 70 years old, far past the glory days.

I’ve been in the swimming pool, on the track, on the road bike… and there are common threads weaving through everyone’s unvocalized response to this question they didn’t know I had asked them,

Community.

Competition with self.

Persistence.

Re-Creation.

Through my own personal struggle to find answers, I’ve found a beauty that, through my one-track minded, win-or-die athlete brain, that I never recognized with sport.

Sport is a vehicle for us to connect. Sport is an opportunity to find people that give us purpose in life. Sport is the perfect metaphor for life. It is not the wins and losses that count. It is your ability to keep going, to stay in the game, and to bring others along with you.

The win is the game.

The game is an opportunity to Re-Create yourself and your experiences.

And thus, How I Spend My Time was born.

This subject was packaged as an RFP and delivered to 2025 SCC summer interns – Tyson Ellison, Hannah McGinley, and Jason Thompson. They were tasked with conceptualizing a social media-forward campaign that could encapsulate these beautiful fundamentals of sport and creatively share them through with the world through an audiovisual medium.

In the concept direction that was chosen, the summer intern team thought it would be compelling to study how different individuals or groups spend their precious time, through the lens of sport.

We chose Cameron Scarlett and Martae Brown of the Big Yard Foundation, Shani Storey of Breakfast Club PDX, and Brennan Scarlett, to study and seek to understand the reasonings for spending their time the way they do.

Our first question of the interviews - “What is Time?” Yeah, meta. We went there.

Whether coaching middle schoolers in flag football, leading a female run club on Portland’s downtown waterfront, or running the trails of Forest Park in solitude, our goal was to find the commonalities, and the differences, of the perspectives on why each subject was spending their time in that way.

We discovered that everyone had a unique definition (or lack thereof) of time, but each person shared similar value systems when it comes to spending their time. Not for an outcome. But simply to live each moment with intention. To find greatness in themselves or the people around them. Or to create a safe space for athletic expression.

When we distill each of these individuals’ experiences and responses down to their most fundamental truth, they spend their time with intention, with community, because it helps them find a deeper understanding of themselves, and the moments in which they are living.

How I Spend My Time is a study, yes, but it is also something more. It is a challenge. A challenge to always ask ourselves, “How do I spend my time?”

If we are dissatisfied with the answer, well that’s our cue.

How I Spend My Time is a challenge to us all to live each moment of our time with intention. Maybe a better version of each of us might unfold. And don’t be afraid to break a recreational sweat while you’re at it.

Re-Creation. Is that not why we are here?

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Thank you to the team for helping to bring this vision to life.

The SCC summer intern team who showed up with incredible ideas and energy that will permeate through Scarlett Creative long after their program ends.

Dillon McNeil for the creativity and passion behind the shots, the tone, and helping keep us honed in on the purpose of the piece.

Caroline Hall for tying up the loose ends, keeping clarity on the mission, and bringing it all together.

Cheers to another Scarlett Creative joint – hope you all enjoy.