Lessons learned attending school

The time has come. The time for me to write my farewell and end my time with the Dakota Student after five years.

Coming into college I was set on becoming a sports journalist once I graduated. A couple weeks into my freshman year I got an opportunity to report on UND sports when former Editor-In-Chief Alison Kelly took a chance on me.

I hadn’t written for my high school newspaper and had no other writing experience outside of some online work I had done. However, seeing as the DS is a learning opportunity for students, I was fortunate enough to get a trial run.

That trial run would turn into a permanent role for me as a writer in which for four years I would cover everything and anything UND sports related.

After serving as an intern reporter at a community newspaper in Crosby, ND this past summer, I was burnt out on reporting by the time school was about to start. Instead of reporting on a game that took place I wanted to create.

Allowing me to implement my humor, personality, thoughts, opinions and random babblings, all of which make writing fun for me, brought me to this section of the paper.

So one last time I get to do that in this space, and one last time I get to write to you all. To close out my final column I wanted to go over the things I’ll miss the most about UND when I graduate in August.

It’s been real.

Yoga pants/leggings

Fun fact: college women loooooove yoga pants and leggings. I love seeing college women in either—it’s a win-win.

I don’t know when this whole leggings craze took off but it’s come to a point where when I see a girl in jeans I do a double take, and I can’t blame women for wearing them either because I wouldn’t want to wear a tight pair of jeans.

In order to see what all this was about I tried on a pair of yoga pants a couple weeks ago. I learned two things: the first being that I need to hit the gym and work on making my legs not look like a woman’s, and the second being that when I get married and don’t have to try anymore, I’m totally purchasing a pair of ones made for men.

Now fellas, I know I stroke the curiosity within you and you are going to want to run home right now and try on your girlfriend’s pair, but I caution against doing that because when she walks in on you trying them on it’s going to be more awkward.

Jan Orvik’s weather related emails

Just kidding.

Welcome Weekend

There’s something about Welcome Weekend that always gets me. Freshman year it was about meeting new people and doing new things. Every year after it was about seeing people you hadn’t seen all summer and letting loose before the semester started.

After hibernating for the summer, campus wakes up and breathes life into Grand Forks..

It’s also the only time of year I’m excited for school, and that’s only because I had been out of school for a few months and forgot what it’s like to be in school. A month into the semester I realize I was an idiot for ever wanting school to start back up as I’m crying in my beer at bar close over all the stuff I have to get done.

The student section

Oh how I will miss you. There’s nothing more depressing than going to a game at the Ralph and NOT being in the student section.

You see all these students having a blast, being dumb, acting silly and you feel like you are missing out. I enjoyed being one of those students and now I will be relegated to having to act like an actual grown up at a sporting event.

Man, getting old sucks.

You

Yes, you, the one reading this right now. I thank you for taking the time for picking up this paper and taking five minutes to read this. Without you I wouldn’t be doing this.

The vast majority of you are faceless to me and I will never know you, or know you have even read my work, but it doesn’t matter to me. I have enjoyed being able to express myself in this space to you twice a week for the past two semesters.

I’ve been thinking of how I would want to close my final column for some time now, and I came up with an answer to a question I’ve never been asked.

“Brandon, why do you write?” to which I would reply “I rarely receive feedback from articles I write, but when I have, when someone you’ve never met takes time out of their day to email or call to tell you what you wrote meant something to them, you realize you have had an impact on that person. That is a feeling you can’t recreate. It is spontaneous and wonderful, and that is why I write. ”