“Why are you working so late?” has been a pretty common question I’ve gotten over the last couple of years, usually followed by “That sucks,” or “Why do you do that to yourself?” However, staying up for those 9 p.m. basketball recaps is part of the job, a part of working in journalism that all professionals in the industry understand, and because of the people around me, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I would be lying if I said I loved every second of it, but Technician has provided me with experience and relationships that made everything worth it. Whether it was a Thursday night football article from Jaylan Harrington, a basketball Pack Pros article shared by Tristan Tucker with the use of an advanced stat I had never heard of or Ryan Henkel’s 4 a.m. Icepack recap, it was the hard work put in by those around me that kept me going. 

Did this job further destroy my sleep schedule, cause me to work on school breaks and sometimes take time away from my classes? Yes, absolutely. But working in Student Media provided more value than any of that. 

Learning to work in teams, manage people and content, create a social media plan and everything else I did during my time helped me grow more as an individual and a professional than anything else in college — even my degree. Although getting that piece of paper saying you were able to survive four more years of school is cool, the real learning for me came outside the classroom and in our third-floor Witherspoon office.

When I look back on my college experience, nothing is going to jump out more than working at Technician. There is no place I’ve spent more time, no place I’ve learned more and, most importantly, no place I’ve met more meaningful people in my life. I’ve met so many of my best friends — life-long friends — from working at Technician. 

There are just so many people to thank, so many people that have helped me in the last three and a half years. I’m a pretty firm believer that your career path is much more about who you know than what you know. For me, that goes back a couple of years to playing baseball at Western Guilford High School in Greensboro, where I met Alec Sawyer. Alec was two years older than me, but we became pretty good friends while hanging out at practice. I remember being slightly upset when he graduated and moved on to college, but out of coincidence, we both ended up at NC State. 

My freshman year, I was having lunch with Alec’s amazing wife Victoria when I was introduced to Technician. Long story short, the two of them convinced me to join the sports section, and I’ve loved it ever since. After about a semester as a correspondent and staff writer, I was hired as one of the assistant sports editors by Jonathan Carter and Connor Bolinder. Along with the confidence that I’m sure Alec and Andrew Schnittker instilled in them to hire me, I will be forever grateful for that opportunity provided by them.  

From then on, every sports editor I’ve worked alongside has become one of my best friends. Working long hours with Alec, Andrew, Tristan, Nicholas Schnittker and Jake Caccavaro over the last two years will always be some of my favorite memories. And of course, I cannot forget to mention Jaylan, who never worked as sports editor, but as the video editor, managing editor and football beat writer, he has always been my go-to guy.

Thank you to Dan Gilliam, Rachael Davis and Alicia Thomas for continuing to believe in me and allowing me to head up the sports section for the last two years. The editor-in-chief and managing editor positions are time-consuming and difficult, but you guys absolutely crushed it. And thank you to all the sports writers that have passed through the section during my time. There are just way too many to name, but you guys made this job so enjoyable with all your hard work, despite the next-to-nothing pay.

There are a number of people at NC State who have made the experience so smooth. Starting with all of the professional staff at Student Media, especially our advisor Ellen Meder, who works so hard and puts up with the 100-plus college students who have an endless number of stupid questions. On the NC State athletics side, from top to bottom, their sports information directors and staff have been so fantastic to me and Technician. From Senior Associate Athletic Director Fred Demarest and Assistant Athletics Communications Directors Matti Smith and Lizzie Hattrich, to all the coaches, athletes and everyone around them, thank you for always supporting our content, putting up with my constant emails and always being available for a postgame interview.

Finally, I want to give a shoutout to my family for supporting me when I’m working at home. I would come home to my mom, dad and brother Cooper for the holidays and still be working. I even wrote a recap for a men’s basketball’s game against Memphis in 2019, literally delaying our Thanksgiving meal by an hour. There is no way I would have gotten through four years of college without their constant positivity and love. 

While reading Andrew and Alec’s letters two years ago, talking about a worldwide pandemic was not what I thought would be in mine, but here we are. Just like everyone else, I’m ready for everybody to get their vaccines so we can go back to some normalcy. Unfortunately, vaccines didn’t come quick enough to save my senior year, but I got more than enough from my college experience, thanks almost entirely to Technician.

Technician is in great hands with Jaylan and Tristan moving up and Nicholas returning to run the sports section alongside Bryan Pyrtle and Wade Bowman. We always used to say the sports section is a well-oiled machine, and it’s because of our passionate writers that we are always able to pass the keys to the next editors with a game plan already in place.

I don’t know exactly what is next, even with the small handful of part-time opportunities I currently have. I will be a college graduate with a degree in business administration operations, interests in esports, gaming and influencer marketing and experience mainly in journalism. There are a lot of things I want to do and accomplish, and it’s finally time to pursue them.