Ariy-El Boynton

This is it; I’m done? Oh no, one more story to tell! And here it is:

More than a year and a half ago, someone thought it was a good idea for me to be a sports editor for The Collegian.

From that day to this, I would like to think that I will be remembered as more than just the “sports guy.”

Flies on the wall in the newsroom could have seen me answering the phone, selling ads and requesting more issues to be put out to the public than originally scheduled at the start of the year.

I also delivered the papers, was on the editorial-board, gave what I thought was good advice, and I hope I was a morale booster.

Some of my attempts at getting laughs to escape the boredom were a reality-based “show,” dancing and turning several singular words into plural words unnecessarily.

However, my time wasn’t all fun and games, as one of my first tasks as an editor was telling a co-sports editor she was unfit to write for The Collegian.

To be fair, my behavior was on the “creepy” side from time-to-time (okay, maybe more than that).

Witnesses could say I have pissed people off and thrown objects in the air at fellow editors almost like the objects were “rain.” Unfortunately, I also spilled pop on people, argued unnecessarily and was stupidly inappropriate at times.

But now this is all in the rear-view mirror. I can’t change the past, good or bad.

Most of you do not know that at times I put too much pressure on myself to be a “super” worker. I challenged myself not to burden anyone with more than I thought they should have been with my section, even though I had a great sports crew behind me. Thanks, Chris, Zach, Travis and others. No amount of words will show how appreciative I am of your work.

I did have a terrific staff backing me up, and I will never forget any of them.

Even with an amazing adviser backing me up in Susan Smith, I was too stubborn to open up. I was zoned in, and I glued my eyes on the prize, four pages a week. Every week I could breathe for maybe 12 hours, and then I blitzed the stories with extreme passion, determined to win and never wanting anyone to doubt if sports would have enough material for the open space.

Each week, I acted as though I put an “S” on my chest. I told myself every week that I would have to emerge from a pay-phone booth with a cape and a smile to survive.

I now discover my kryptonite is time.

I’m done; it’s time for my curtain call. I can take a bow, and I hope someone will clap.

From now on, the term “Ariy-El Boynton is The Collegian sports editor” is just a joke, no longer reality.

Looking back on my journey as sports editor and being so far away from home, there were things I wished I had more of.

At times, I would like to have had more courage, a larger heart and wish my brain was bigger. At times in my editorship, I realized that I was very far from Kansas.

I know that I can say I followed the Yellow Brick Road my way. And I’m fairly certain that the wizard talked to me.

“Ari, you tried your hardest for this paper, and it’s time to let go of the tight-grip you’ve had on this sports section for so long. Much like a butterfly, let go of it and see the beauty of it from the distance,” is what I think he told me.

So now I wave bye-bye, and there’s no Doc. Brown, Marty or the DeLorean to bring me back to the start of my editorship.

Mistakes are the past. Good stories are the past. Memories: priceless.

I came to The Collegian as a mid-20-year-old punk dude; I leave a happier, more confident man.

And I got paid for this change in my confidence? Wow, what a wonderful world.

Oh, I almost forgot about the sports talk.

Ari shoots ? he scores.

Thanks.