The final buzzer sounded and I started typing. I sat there at the Moda Center, courtside, in complete shock as the team I had covered all season was sent packing in the Elite 8. Tears started to swell and my laptop screen became blurry. It was the first time I realized that my time at the Texan would soon be over.
I remember when I first learned about the Daily Texan. I had just gotten accepted into the university and was actually interviewed for a story about self-image coming out of covid. The journalist who interviewed me gave me a suggestion that would completely change my life.
“You should join the Daily Texan,”” she said. “I think you’re a good interviewee and I think you can be great for us!”
In the spring of 2021 I did just that, or at least I tried to. I decided to try-out for the sports department and only the sports department. The task was to write about Texas’ win against Colorado in the Alamo Bowl. I stayed up thinking about the assignment day after day. I even went as far as finding a newspaper article template to write the assignment on.
I turned in the article with a big smile on my face, excited to receive the email confirming my place as a member of the Daily Texan sports department. Yet, it never came, instead I was told my writing wasn’t up to par but to try again at another time. The hunger to work in sports journalism was still in me and so in the summer I joined the Texan’s audio department and immediately, I was way out of my wheel-house.
The tryout required me to create a podcast episode based on pre-recorded audio segments and we learned to do so on Adobe Audition. The problem was that I missed the teaching session on how to work audition. Up until that point the only Adobe I knew about was Flash Player. I was somehow able to cut together an episode at three in the morning thanks to YouTube videos and sheer luck.
Somehow, someway, I was accepted into the department so I want to say thank you to Carly Rose and Addie Costello who took a chance on me. Almost immediately, I got to interview Longhorn Olympian Steffin McCarter. I worked my way to associate audio editor spearheading the sports branch of the department. Yet, at that point I still had the itch to try my hand at writing. I was named English Student of The Year my senior year of high school so I considered myself a strong writer.
The truth was, I was so far behind everybody else who was working for the sports department. I had no prior journalistic experience so I had no clue what AP Style was or how to even format an article. Yet, again, I was accepted into the department in the fall semester of 2022. I remember one of my first articles was about how those in the incoming football freshman class who decided to enroll early would benefit greatly from doing so.
That article got torn to shreds, with over 60 edits made and I immediately wanted to quit. I decided my writing was horrible, I would never catch up, and at this point, I was still searching for how many words equaled an inch! I went to my ex-professor Emily Quigley looking for any kind of advice. It’s honestly because of her that I stayed in the department and decided to keep pushing forward.
In the fall of 2023, I was given the opportunity to cover the women’s basketball team. This decision made my senior year better than I could have ever asked for. Yet as I worked through the beginning of the semester, my work still struggled. Thankfully, I signed up for a class with professor Kevin Robbins. He worked with me, offering me tips on how to write with passion and feeling while also teaching me the nuances of AP style. Thank you to professor Robbins for helping create the writer that sits here today.
When I first started thinking about how my goodbye letter to the Texan would look like, I thought I knew how it would go. Yet, I would be a fool to not mention my partner in crime, Isa Almeida. Isa is leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at this point in her career. I want to thank you for being a great colleague and an even better friend. I know you will go on to be successful in everything you do.
To wrap this up, I want to thank my family who were ecstatic whenever I had a new article out. I want to express my gratitude to my friends here in Austin and back home in Brownsville who have supported me and shared every link I sent them. My girlfriend, MJ, who I met at the Texan, is one of my biggest fans, often reading my stories at the dinner table.
Thank you to the Texan for allowing me to travel to Portland, Oregon and gifting me the opportunity to do something so many dream of. Being from Brownsville, Texas, I never thought I would be here but by the grace of God, I am. Today my edits sit around the 5 to 15 mark but every time I write, it’s to show that young man that anything is possible through hard work.
I’m blessed to be part of this staff and blessed to be a Longhorn. Above all, I hope to be somewhat of a beacon of hope to those who think they’re way in over their heads. If I can do it, so can you.
