“College is the best four years of your life, because after that, you’re [expletive deleted].” Funny but true, this quote by Mr. Lewis Black illustrates the point many fail to recognize while in college. These moments, these memories, should be the most carefree and hedonistic in our lives, living without consequence, which when we later tell our children about our escapades in college we can dismiss as lapses in judgement because “we were in college”.
Living four years under the debauchery may be memorable to look fondly upon later, but isn’t intended to be the thesis. While so much in life is permeated upon what we want our lives to be, in fact, very seldom do we necessarily get what we want. But in the end, we always get what we need.
A couple of days ago a friend said to me, “David, you’re too smart to be here.” When he said it I understood he meant being a student at Sam Houston State and not eating at Chili’s.
But to be fair, to a certain extent, he’s right. I had no intention of ever being a Bearkat. After my high school graduation I went to Texas A&M – Corpus Christi with the intention of going there for a year, being away from my home of 18 years in Houston and then transferring to the main campus in College Station for the fall of 2005.
But as soon as I got in Corpus Christi, A&M decided to get rid of their journalism program in the fall of 2004. This forced me to make a decision on where to transfer because I couldn’t stomach another semester there. I was left with either the choice of continuing my journalism career or going to TAMU and earning a degree in Economics.
The decision I made is clear, but the point is that coming to SHSU, though not even a thought in my mind four years ago, was the best decision I ever made. Such a great array of teachers, be it Mr. Blackman who taught the importance of editing along with offering invaluable advice or Mr. Herskowitz offering hope that you can be successful in this business through passion and a strong work-ethic. They, along with so many others over these past four years, have each helped me in some way improve academically and tap into an array of talents I apparently didn’t know I had.
The last year and a half at ‘The Houstonian’ have brought such great experiences; having the opportunity to have an over hour-long discussion of offensive game planning and the art of play calling with Offensive Coordinator James Ferguson, or spending nearly two hours with head coach Bob Marlin discussing his coaching career and the passion he holds towards St. Louis Cardinals baseball. Such interesting stories and great memories I can cherish were achieved through the aid of great people who worked at our school paper. Be it our former Editor-in-Chief Kenny Bybee or the Sports Editor during my tenure, Christi Laney, both individuals passionate about sports, they, like so many others, were a pleasure to work with.
I didn’t remain a Sports Writer/Columnist for selfish reasons. I didn’t do it to win awards (three so far) or to have my name in the paper, or to be arrogant enough to believe my columns could create public opinion on a certain issue. I never wanted to have items I wrote published or posted on Facebook or MySpace.
My end-game was always to be part of the process for those individuals I had written about who had documentation about these achievements, so when they are older they can offer their children a glimpse into their past. Coach Marlin put it best when he said the article on his four seniors this past spring allowed him to “have something I can look back at, when I’m old and grey.” As my time is concluding here, I just want to say one last thank you to all those who praised, criticized, helped, those I interviewed for the paper, or for that matter were friends, roommates and acquaintances of mine. Without all of you, I wouldn’t have been able to experience and truly enjoy the best four years of my life.