I can’t be certain where or what I’ll be doing six months from now, but in life there is little we can be certain about.
I do know that I would like to work in sports. I’m not sure how or if that opportunity will present itself, but it is a wish nonetheless.
And if that wish is granted, I want to remain a sports fan. Not just a fan, but a fanatic.
While working as a news production assistant at WRAL-TV, sports anchor and friend Tom Suiter told me that sports is never the same once it becomes work.
While I can understand how someone could become slightly jaded after countless hours of synchronizing highlights and editing scripts, I hope I never reach that frame of mind. Sports are my passion. They always have been and always will be. I’ve known this to be true ever since I could dribble a ball or even read the back of an Upper Deck baseball card.
Sports have served a much greater purpose in my life than as entertainment or a form of exercise. Sports have given me the chance to make friends and build relationships. Sports have given me the chance to compete and be emotional. These are qualities I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Over the last few years I’ve been riding the emotional roller coaster that is N.C. State athletics.
In the 2001-2002 school year, I watched Anthony Grundy propel the basketball program to its first NCAA Tournament in a decade and Ray Robinson lead State to a historic victory at Florida State. The next year I was in the stands for the Pack’s 80-71 triumph over then No. 3 Duke.
However, in 2003, I coped with quarterback Philip Rivers coming up a yard short in the triple overtime loss to defending national champion Ohio State and the 5-6 record the team recorded the following season.
Sports can be the springboard to the highest of highs — and the lowest of lows. Sports bend us in all sorts of ways but don’t break us. Though our hearts are broken, as sports fans we can take solace in the fact that there will always be another game, another meet, another match.
Sports have a way of connecting us all.
I want to thank to my fantastic editors – Austin, Ian, Tanner, Josh and Clark. Without them, I wouldn’t be writing this column.
I also want to thank my toughest critic — my mother — and my role model — my father — for always being there.
As I embark on this transition period of my life, I can definitively say one thing has become certain. As long as I’m walking this earth, I’ll be bleeding Wolfpack red.