Saying goodbyes, taking graduation photos and standing in a room with people — where all of you will likely never be together all at once again — happened both in the blink of an eye and in four long years.

I’m excited to see what the future holds, but at the same time, I’m sad this chapter is coming to a close.

When I think back on my time at Syracuse, there are a lot of things I reminisce on and wonder what could’ve been if they had gone differently. For some, I feel I was on the wrong end of the stick and really wish they’d gone differently. For others, I couldn’t feel luckier to be in the position I was in.

But even with the imperfection of how the last four years played out, I wouldn’t trade my experience for any other. The Daily Orange is the first reason why.

Ever since my sophomore year of high school, when I started building my MLB Instagram page and writing for a startup website called Field2Court.com, the dream of becoming a sports journalist has constantly pushed me. And if that kid — who was so excited to interview baseball prospects Austin Beck and Chris Rodriguez over Instagram DMs during COVID-19 — saw what I did here, he’d think it’s the sickest thing ever. And he’d be right.

Above all, The D.O. gave me an outlet where I felt I could always be myself — especially when that wasn’t always the case. When I arrived at SU four years ago, I was a nervous 17-year-old wishing I was still consumed with being a captain on my high school baseball team. I would prefer to just sit on a couch and watch sports rather than go out at night.

While a tough adjustment at first, I met a — mostly — great group of friends, began to break out of my shell a little bit and enjoyed being a college student. It’s why, despite my desire to one day be The D.O.’s sports editor and being encouraged to apply in-house for the spring semester, I passed it up to rush a fraternity after winter break.

I thought I made the right decision, and it was all going to work out. And then right when it looked like I was going to end up where I wanted, they told me to come back and rush in the fall.

I was crushed. I thought I screwed myself a chance at rising through The D.O., and I questioned whether I’d even have fun in college.

While there were some highlights, that semester was by far my least favorite of college. I knew for certain I’d apply to work for The D.O. for the fall semester, but I was torn — before deciding I needed to do it — on whether to try rushing again.

I was genuinely terrified going into my sophomore year with how everything would shake out. Once I started pledging, I told myself that if I couldn’t work for The D.O. adequately enough, I’d drop and accept that Greek life wasn’t for me.

Though there’s a (strong) argument that I wasn’t very good at my job, I did whatever it took — skipped classes, retweeted beat writers/made score cards while working parties, designated time slots so I could make it to 230 Euclid twice a week, interviewed the subject of my first guide story on one hour of sleep and many others things — to stay afloat at The D.O. Nobody besides myself knew the sh*t I was going through, and that was easily the most grueling and demanding stretch of my time at Syracuse.

With some good fortune, a little bit of luck and people at The D.O. — massive shoutouts to Aiden Stepansky, Sophie Szydlik and Tyler Schiff — willing to help me tread water while I was drowning, I eventually found the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a massive weight off my back, but I knew I had a lot to do to keep proving myself at The D.O.

As a result, my entire focus — for better or worse — went to The D.O. While still close with my first core group of friends, I spent significantly less time with them from that point forward. Meanwhile, I never really built meaningful relationships with anyone in the fraternity because, in my mind, I needed to beat the allegations that I didn’t work hard enough for everyone else to see.

With some good fortune, again, and to my surprise, I was promoted to be an assistant sports editor. Over the ensuing two semesters as an assistant and during my sports editor semester, I worked my hardest to give all I could to the section.

And by far the best part about it was that I met three of my best friends — Aiden, Zak Wolf and Cooper Andrews — in the process. While I definitely — for numerous reasons — felt there was a lot to be desired when I wasn’t at 230 Euclid, I knew every time I walked through those doors, I’d be in an environment with people I’d never get sick of — despite the sickening amount of time we spent together.

There’s truly nothing like the pursuit of greatness alongside people who want it just as badly as you do. And the beauty of The D.O. is that the cycle keeps on going — it was awesome to see that play out with the great crop of younger writers this year.

It almost feels like yesterday when I walked into The D.O. for the first time, and Anish Vasudevan showed me around the sports room. Or the time when I walked in for my new writer read, and Henry O’Brien taught me the most fundamental things of all time when I had no clue what I was doing.

It’s wild to think I’m writing one of these things now — especially with how much I procrastinated it. But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

If I saw my younger self walking into The D.O. for the first time, I’d tell him he’s exactly where he needs to be and that he needs to do everything possible to grind through the ranks. I probably wouldn’t give any warning about what that’d entail, but I know if he knew the end result, he would’ve been ecstatic.

My biggest struggle throughout college was grappling with what could have been in certain situations and questioning why some things played out the way they did. But for as much as that bothered me, it was all worth it in the end.

That’s because the first thing I’ll think about from my time at Syracuse is the great people and experiences The Daily Orange gave me.

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Justin Girshon was a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column no longer appears. He can be reached at justingirshon@gmail.com and on X @JustinGirshon.

Published on May 5, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon