After I finish writing this column, it will be the last one I write for the sports section as its editor.
While I will continue to work for the Trinitonian, I won’t be writing weekly about Trinity sports or sports in general; instead, I will take my slightly-above average writing skills to the Arts section.
Writing a column every week is a great experience, and if anyone has the opportunity to do so, I would highly recommend it. However, here are some caveats you should know before diving in.
Sometimes it may seem like you are writing about the same thing every week; for me that was soccer.
To all the baseball fans out there, I’m sorry; I just know practically nothing about the sport.
You may feel like you aren’t really learning or discussing anything new.
Other times, you may think you have written the next “Superman goes to the Supermarket” and can’t wait to see the public’s reaction to your scintillating prose, only to realize that maybe four people and your grandmother have read the column.
It’s hard to remind yourself that not everyone reads your column nor does everyone read the Trinitonian.
There were times where I felt I was writing my column just for the copy editors and executives to read (I am very grateful that they did) and times where it seemed not even my mom had read it.
But just this past weekend, I had a nice chat with a football player here at Trinity. We were talking about how his season went and how the Texans are going to do this year when he mentioned that he was reading an article about golf in the Trinitonian — the one I wrote. I told him I was the sports editor for the Trinitonian, and he said that he tries to read my column every week, but he’s a very busy guy and sometimes can’t get around to it.
Beyond the immediate gratitude that someone was reading my column, his response also reminded me of a crucial fact to this job and to writing a column every week.
While it’s always nice to hear that someone has read your column, it doesn’t really matter how many people read it or if anyone reads it. If I enjoy it and am happy with what I’ve made, that’s what’s most important.
The same goes for the many athletes, artists, musicians, writers, engineers and students in general at as this school. Each of them does something — whether it be writing, painting, playing music, making catapults out of PVC pipe or sitting in labs for five hours looking into microscopes — and they do it because they have a passion or drive for it.
While a crowd would maybe be nice, whether they are there or not doesn’t take away from the gratification one gets from doing something they love.
Back to sports, athletes do what they do because part of them loves playing and their sport may have even become a part of who they are.
The swimmer swimming 5000 meters doesn’t give a shit if I’m watching them swim more miles than I can run, they do it because of the passion they hold for the sport.
That mindset is what’s needed to write a weekly column about what one considers important about sports.
Not everyone will agree with what you say, or even care at all. But that, at the end of the day, isn’t as important as how your writing makes you feel.
If you believe in either of those things, then maybe being the editor for the sports section of the Trinitonian is the job for you.
I have one last request as your sports editor. If you love sports, think you know maybe a thing or two about them or have something to say about sports at Trinity and beyond, this is the job for you.
The job gives you as much as you put into it, and it pushed me (I think) to become a more confident writer, and one who is more aware of his voice in his writing.
So, all I ask is, who is ready to take the mound?
