Somewhere along the road of my eight semesters and more than 60 articles contributed to the sports section of The Tiger, I learned it’s not always about how many words you write or how many exciting sports stories you report on.

Sometimes, it’s really only about the impact you can make on an audience skimming through your byline, wahether they are looking for a quick laugh from your college football thoughts on their Friday morning as they chow down during a Harcombe morning feast or looking for an update on how the men’s soccer team is progressing.

I came to Clemson as a freshman, eager to find a way to make my mark on “the state’s oldest college newspaper,” so I instantly requested to be assigned to what I knew best: track and field.

As a recruited walk-on to the team, who better to cover the record-breaking races, mind-bending jumps and Herculean throws than a somewhat precocious and enthusiastic kid out of Florida who spent a grand total of one semester writing for his high school newspaper?

The Tiger has provided me with a unique outlet of expression unlike anything else I have been fortunate enough to experience during my college career.

It has allowed me to articulate my opinions on the latest triumphs and tragedies and sports from college football to the NBA to professional track and field and everywhere in between.

I have been surprisingly accurate to devastatingly off-center with some of the predictions I have made and statements I released.

One of my personal favorites is: “There should be a rule implemented that if you lose to Stanford in college football, you should be thrown out of your conference” (Gayle, Fall 2007). My, how the tides turned around for that program.

While people may not have always agreed with some of the thoughts and viewpoints I expressed in my columns, my only wish and hope was people were able to take something from the way I portrayed a topic and the thought process involved in some of my writings.

Anyone can write a standard recap of events, but one of the great things about sports writing is the art you are able to create with the stroke of the keyboard in front of you.

Bear with me and my tacky analogy, but I have always seen the columns I have been privileged to write as more so than sport event recaps.

They are blank canvases with potential for anything.

As much as I have enjoyed seeing my name in the newspaper nearly every Friday for the last eight semesters, the acknowledgments by the most random people has also fueled my fire to continue to contribute.

One afternoon, I was standing outside Hendrix when a man sitting on a picnic table stared at me for a couple of seconds before asking, “Son, are you the one who writes those sports columns in the paper?”

Caught off guard and frankly just shocked somebody outside of the student community noticed something like that, I simply responded with a nod of the head.

His reply?

“I really enjoy reading your college football commentary, keep it up!”

The little things in life are what we go on to remember long after everything else.

With that random acknowledgement from a stranger, I knew I had at least kept one person’s attention past the first paragraph of one of my many articles.

It has been a phenomenal four years. Thank you for listening; thank you for reading.