Loving what you do ranks right up there in importance with finding the right person to love.

Spending five semesters watching and writing about college athletics made the college experience more bearable than I could have even imagined and was probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

Balancing the workload of a time-consuming job and school was a tall and tough task, but it was worth every moment.

The people that I was fortunate enough to interact with for the past two-and-a-half years are what made the job better; not only with my co-workers, who helped me improve as a writer, but the athletes and coaches that I was able to talk to and spend time with.

I am very thankful to my colleagues for putting up with my procrastinating style of writing and distracting the newsroom, and I am also very thankful to NIU media relations for putting up with my constant nagging about video ideas.

A big realization hit me a week ago while sitting and talking with NIU wrestling head coach Dave Grant, who is also coming to the end of his time in DeKalb.

As I listened to him give me reasons that I should stay for graduate school, I thought of why it was time for my departure, and that I was ready for what is waiting for me out in that dark and scary world.

I also realized what I would have been if this opportunity never came to me.

Without this job, I would have never gotten the chance to actually challenge these Division I athletes and realize that they are much more talented than I am in my video series, Mike vs. NIU.

Without this job, I would have never met people like Dave Grant or Eric Luzzi that are not only great coaches, but great people as well.

Without this job, I would have never left my room and gone out into the sports world of DeKalb to see how fun it can be.

For someone who entered college not knowing what he was going to do with his life, I learned from my experience at the Northern Star that this is what I love, and what I was meant to do.