College is usually quantified as a period of four years, but what if it could be quantified in different ways?
Like by the number of multiple-choice bubbles filled in, the number of Friday nights or the number of classes skipped. For me, it may be by the number of articles written, or interviews recorded.
But one thing that can’t be quantified is the experience gained through those four years, thousands of multiple-choice bubbles or hundreds of articles.
I, like most, came to Athens not knowing where the next four years would take me. I did not think I would ever step foot in Piscataway, N.J. or Boise, ID. But I did both.
I had no desire to go to Bowling Green or Detroit, but my college career would not end without trips to those cities during the coldest time of the year.
As awful as December trips to Detroit and Boise sound, I realize how lucky I am to have made them.
Fortunately for me, my one year as assistant sports editor at The Post could be quantified as the greatest year in Ohio athletic history.
One bowl win, two Mid-American Conference championship appearances and three NCAA Tournament games.
I was there for it all, in celebration and in defeat.
I was there, on the blue turf when Ohio celebrated its first-ever bowl win. I was there when 13,000 fans gathered in The Convo to honor a legend. I was there when the Bobcats won their second MAC Tournament in three years.
I was there when chants of ‘We are Ohio’ echoed throughout Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and I was there when Ohio punched its ticket to the Sweet 16.
Of all of the remarkable highs I witnessed, there were also some remarkable lows.
I was there when the football Bobcats blew a 20-point halftime lead in the MAC Championship game and I was there when the NCAA Tournament run came to an end in St. Louis.
The first game I ever covered for The Post was an Ohio hockey game. I can distinctly remember walking into Bird Arena for the first time and being overwhelmed by the potent smell of what seemed to be a combination of a sweaty sock and a dead fish.
The last game I ever covered for The Post was a Sweet 16 game in the St. Louis Rams’ Edward Jones Dome. There were a few more people in attendance and the smell of the arena was not nearly as noticeable. This time around there were more reporters than just me and the kid from Speakeasy, as it usually was at the hockey games.
And of course there were many stops in between, and a different atmosphere to experience at each one. You have not experienced small-town America until you’ve been to a football game at Trimble High School and you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the media food spread at Ohio Stadium.
I came to OU because I heard it had a pretty good journalism school, but it is these experiences that I will take as my time in Athens comes to a close.
I can’t remember everything I’ve learned, and I don’t remember every article I’ve written. But these moments have stuck with me.
It has been 45 months since I embarked on this journey we call college, now there’s only a few things left to count. Days until graduation: eight. Finals to take: three. Articles left for The Post: just this one.
Rob Ogden is a senior studying journalism and the assistant sports editor at The Post. Can you count the number of multiple-choice bubbles you’ve filled in? Email him at ro137807@ohiou.edu.
