Not goodbye, see you later

I’m not very good at writing columns. Heck, I may not be good at writing much of anything. Who knows? But I’ve been told these farewell columns need to be special. They are supposed to be thought out and sentimental and all that mushy crap. That’s not me — sorry to disappoint.

When I started thinking about what I would say and how I would say it for my farewell, I drew a blank. Not an “I’ll figure out at some point” blank. An “I don’t have a clue, for real” blank.

I could talk about sports. I got my start with Technician sports and that is really where my interests lie. But why reminisce about four years of, for the most part, disappointment from Athletics. Aside from this past football season, there isn’t a ton to remember fondly, or remember at all.

I could do the shout out style column where I thank all my friends at Technician for being some of the best people and best friends I’ve ever met. But why do that? Those people, by this point, should know that my time in college wouldn’t have been the same without them. They should also know I will never forget the fun times we had on the third floor of Witherspoon Student Center, and Sammy’s and even East Village (see Taylor Auten, Josh Harrell and Langdon Morris).

The point of these things, at least in my opinion, is to compress all the things you remember from four years into about 500 words and hope somebody cries.

What this column did for me though, more than anything, is make me think. It made me think about what is important in my life. And it made me aware that I’m going to miss this place more than I realized at first.

When I think about my time at N.C. State, about a million different things come to mind. At this point, the memories all sort of run together into this long YouTube type highlight video of my life as a college student. The video doesn’t make much sense and has terrible editing and quality, but it sure is funny.

I started college as a confused 18-year-old who had no idea what he wanted to do in life, no close friends here and no long-term career goals. I kind of had a major — see First Year College. Basically, I was along for the ride, unsure of what I wanted and who I was.

Four years later, I’m on the verge of getting that all important piece of paper which is supposedly the ticket for employment. We’ll see how that works out.

I’m still confused, just in a different way.

But I do know who I am and what I want in life. And I thank everyone at Technician for helping me realize it.

For you folks who may be reading this and thinking you might want to get involved with Technician this summer or next year, go for it. It’s an experience that can truly change your life. And even if it doesn’t, it will be a heck of a lot of fun.

Sorry for the shameless Technician plug. I just couldn’t resist.