Want to hear a funny story?

In May 2015, a sophomore at Colorado State University walked into the Collegian newsroom not knowing a soul that worked there and has never written an article in his life.

Before that, the same sophomore had sent countless emails to sports@collegian.com begging for an interview and never heard back.

The student walked into the newsroom, stopped at the front desk and asked, “Hi, I’m Chad Deutschman. Can I please have a job?”

Yeah, I’m that kid. That was about two years ago.

By the grace of God, I got that job on the sports desk. Even became lucky enough to cover the CSU Women’s Soccer beat my junior year. I‘m pretty sure there was a typo in my first story—and every story since—but I’m a fan of blaming editors for those things.

Fast forward one year from my awkward job begging and I was named sports editor of the Collegian. It’s funny how things work out.

I’d be lying if I said I knew what I was doing right away—maybe I still don’t—but this past year as editor has been surreal for a lot of reasons. I have struggled to put into words, but here it goes:

This past year I watched my parents get divorced and my Opa courageously play tug-o-war with the Grim Reaper for eight long months.

The day of the Rocky Mountain Showdown, I was told he had one year to live. I spent Thanksgiving break in UC Irvine hospital by his side with my Mom and Omi as one year unfairly turned into a phone could ring any day. On April 7, about a month before graduation—something my Opa and I talked an awful lot about—I got that call from my brother at 6:22 a.m.

A lot of people have lost someone in their life. I won’t pretend my hardships have been any more difficult than the next person’s—that is not my intention. But having to see my family struggle for eight months has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever done for reasons I can’t find words to explain. I would be lying to myself if I said these things didn’t have an affect on my work and school this year.

There were days I wanted to be alone. There were days I wanted to cry. There were a lot of days I wanted to quit my job. I’m not really sure why I never did. But looking back on it now, I can’t imagine this year without it.

I will always remember the late nights at Hughes Stadium with the football staff, fumbling through a story as the last light lit in Fort Collins was in the press box we were sitting in.

I will always remember driving to Vegas and meeting John Elway’s best friend.

I will always remember holding staff meetings and seeing blank stares looking back at me like I just spoke nonsense—which easily could be true.

I will always remember panicking the night before a special edition.

I will always remember reading our professional advisor’s critiques, only to make the same mistake again the next day… Sorry, Jim.

I will always remember being the guy who had to get pizza for the rest of the newsroom because I didn’t know enough about the election to be helpful.

But most importantly, I will always remember the people I met along the way.

To the sports desk, I say thank you. Thank you for putting up with me for an entire year, especially when I wasn’t always the most available person. Thank you for working your ass off when I asked you to but even more so when I didn’t. Thank you for the laughs along the way, I hope you were able to have some fun.

To CSU athletes and athletics, I’d like to apologize. I’m sorry for asking so many questions and for not always letting you know whom I wanted to talk to 24 hours in advance. You all went out of your way to help our staff and I can’t thank you enough for doing so.

To the readers, stick around. Every time you clicked on a story I hope you learned something about CSU sports. The work we did was for you, and at the very least, I hope you didn’t hate it.

To the rest of the editorial board, you’re cool.

But seriously, I am humbled to have been around such a hard working group and great people. Sure, we had our bumps along the way, but if we were perfect all the time Jim’s job would be no fun. I like to think any mistakes we made were us simply keeping people on their toes.

To next year’s sports desk, don’t suck. I wish you the best of luck and know you will accomplish much more than I did. Enjoy the highs and lows of the job, but most of all, remember you are always learning.

With that said, I’d like to pass on the Rocky Mountain Collegian sports editor torch.

Danke für die Erinnerungen.

Collegian sports editor Chad Deutschman can no longer be reached at sports@collegian.com but can be found on Twitter @ChadDeutschman