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KANSAN.COM
FINALS GUIDE
Jackson: Trying to find a way to say goodbye to a memorable chapter
SHANE JACKSON @jacksonshane3
Did I miss the class where they prepared us for this moment? Was there a moment in Kansan training when I dozed off and someone outlined how to do this?
How to say goodbye.
Because I have just been staring at my computer for hours thinking about how to do this. I have typed and deleted the start of this count less times. For a person who plans to write for a living, I am certainly struggling to find the right words.
Nothing I say will do justice to my time at the Kansan. It's what has become the most important thing to me in my collegiate career.
Let me tell you the story of how the Kansan changed my life. The Kansan is absolutely the reason I am where I am today. Everything that has come my way has been a testament to how spectacular this organization is.
But I'm going to give it a shot by doing what I have done for the last five semesters — telling a story.
In a few days I will be heading up to Cleveland to cover the Cleveland Indians as an associate reporter for MLB.com. Anybody who knows me knows this is a dream come true for me.
And I credit this opportunity to the Kansan.
It is true that the J-School is fantastic. But nearly everything I have learned over the last few years has come during my time with the UDK. I learned the challenge of turning in a gamer immediately following the buzzer, which was most notably tested during a triple-overtime thriller against Oklahoma.
My time with the Kansan taught me that if I needed a slam-dunk quote to go to Landen Lucas or Ben Heeney. It taught me the importance of having a good relationship with the SIDs and understanding how hard their job is.
It blessed me with the opportunity to cover a baseball team that made the regional in Louisville in my first semester, and trip to Louisville in my final semester, covering a basketball team that fell
in the Elite Eight.
Truth be told, though,
I won't remember any of that when I look back years from now on my time with the Kansan.
I won't remember the final score of Kansas vs. Oklahoma or how many points Wayne Selden Jr. had against Kentucky.
It also taught me that not every season will be a success. I covered just two wins by the football team in two seasons (I actually missed the victory against Iowa State). But covering the hardships of that team was just as important, if not more, as covering another Big 12 championship by the basketball team.
Instead, I will remember the people that I have met and the stories I have locked up in the memory bank for an eternity.
I have made several lifelong friendships because of the Kansan, perhaps none greater than with my sports editor Scott Chasen, whom I had the luxury of working closely with the last three semesters.
I will remember fondly playing over 100 rock-paper-scissors games with him in the
newsroom while we waited for stories to come in. I will remember our conversations during a nine-hour road trip to Chicago to cover the Champions Classic.
And I will remember staring at a blank screen after the Elite Eight, even though I assured Scott earlier that day I would be ready for whatever happens. The realization that it was my final game had finally hit me.
But the reality is it doesn't really matter. Next year there will be another byline during the NCAA tournament and you the readers will still get stellar — nay, better — coverage.
As for me, I will continue writing and the foundation of my reporting comes from my time with the Kansan.
So maybe this is goodbye, but this is not the end of the story. If anything it's the end of memorable chapter, a chapter that will always have a special place in my heart.
But it's not the end.
In a way, it's like the story has only just begun.
But it's not the end.
Edited by Brendan Dzwierzynski
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