One month ago, I handed over the reins of The Miami Student’s sports section to current editor Graham Young. I had previously been sports editor for two years and have been writing consistently since I was a first-year.
While I’ll miss the memories and responsibilities I had as sports editor, I won’t lie: Having extra free time has allowed me to accomplish a lot. Here’s a list of things I’ve been able to do without going to long production nights, traveling most weekends or writing multiple stories a week.
Touch grass outside of Yager Stadium
A major draw for many prospective Miami students are the numerous nature paths and green spaces on campus. Outside the frequent stroll on Cook Field, however, the only nature I’ve encountered has been the beautiful turf at Yager Stadium.
Between midweek MACtion games, practices, spring showcases and pro days, I’d gotten used to visiting Yager four or five days a week. Once the football season wrapped up, that time was replaced with trips to Millett Hall. If I wasn’t on that side of campus at least once a day, it must’ve been a slow week.
After transitioning out of being sports editor, I suddenly had two months to officially tour campus (something I probably should have done before committing here four years ago).
Instead of walking from my apartment to Millett, I’ve been walking around Cook and playing tennis during the times I usually spent working in the newsroom. After two years of rarely doing so, I’ve been able to go for recreational strolls without worrying about editing or writing something on the spot.
Attend class
Once upon a time, I was a bright-eyed first-year majoring in finance, who purposefully scheduled classes at 8:30 a.m. to “get my day started early.”
Early morning classes eventually became a necessity to fulfill my finance and journalism majors at the same time. Around the start of my junior year, however, I officially realized that attending these classes was optional.
I faded around three classes a week, mostly in my finance courses but occasionally skipping a journalism one (sorry Sampson) to go to a press conference or hit the road for an away game. For any first-years reading this, I wouldn’t recommend skipping your classes, but if you have a good enough reason, go for it.
Since stepping down as editor and with the basketball season finished, I reminded myself that I’m still a student and that I would prefer to graduate this spring. I recently went to all of my classes in a day for the first time since this semester began, surprising professors that hadn’t seen me in weeks.
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The temptation to fade still lingers, and I may or may not have skipped classes in the past month just to sleep in. But I can at least skip and stay in Oxford instead of missing the second class of the semester to drive to Wisconsin on a Thursday.
Visit home
I absolutely pranked my family when I told them I’d changed my mind on Michigan State and decided to go four hours away to a place called Oxford, Ohio, on the last day to confirm my college decision. A large part of my reasoning was that I would drive home for every break and holiday.
Believe it or not, they fell for that prank as well.
My mom often asks if I will be driving home for the weekend. Imagine her shock when she checks my location and realizes I’m in Cleveland for the fourth time that year (since I also forget to tell her when and where I’ll be traveling).
I delayed my spring break this year to drive to Philadelphia and West Virginia covering March Madness. I also evaded part of J-Term last year to fly to Tucson, Arizona, and I shortened my summer break to two weeks and stayed in Oxford to write for the Oxford Free Press.
When I finally did get back home for spring break, it felt like I was a caveman recently thawed after being frozen in time. It was nice to be back, but if anything, the past couple years have prepared me for what life will be like after graduation.
Attend Beat the Clock
It took me until my junior year to be graced with the wonders of Brick Street Bar. It also took me until junior year to realize that it’s not even close to my vibe at all, but I’m glad I can say I’ve experienced it.
Brick Street always intrigued me despite it not being a major draw, but one thing I wish I had experienced before was Beat the Clock. When I was underage, I was too nervous about not being able to get in. Once I was 21, however, my weekends were usually spent driving to some school in the MAC or spending the day at Yager or Millett. If not that, I was trying my best to catch up on missing work from the classes I missed the previous week.
With two months before I’m out of here, I’ve been crawling to the finish line and applying to jobs, but I wasn’t about to graduate without going to Beat the Clock at least once as a student.
I enjoyed the experience, but it did make me jealous that I don’t have a porch to drink on every Saturday. I’ve tried using a folding chair on my apartment’s shared deck, but it’s not quite the same.
Hit 250 bylines
In my prime, I averaged close to three stories a week. With the football and men’s and women’s basketball beats, it didn’t take me long to go from writing 35 stories during my sophomore year to 128 during my junior year.
The sports editor before me, Jack Schmelzinger, finished his time with 192 bylines. When he graduated, I had less than 50 to my name and only two years to go. For the longest time, I thought that was an unreachable number until I hit 200 bylines last semester.
As far as I know, I’ve already hit the byline record for The Student, but when I realized I was 15 stories away from 250, I realized that even if I was no longer sports editor, I wasn’t quite done writing.
With this story, I’ve now hit 250 bylines and have written something for every section.
That’s all folks. It’s been a pleasure and an honor writing for The Student, but after 250 stories, I’m not sure there’s much else I need to say. Even if I did have one more in me, it’d probably come in late on production night and 500 words over the word count (a designer might actually shoot me).
Peace out.
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