You know, I think spending the year serving as the Sports Editor might’ve been a net negative for me.

That’s not to say I didn’t think the time I spent in that position wasn’t useful. Working in that role taught me more about both team and project management. It also taught me how to really work under pressure, as I’d usually have to write most of, if not the entirety of, the sports section for an issue. That’s anywhere from around 1,600 to around 2,000 words per issue.

But, I find it harder to write a piece nowadays that’s not similar to the style I had written in for the sports section.

I feel like that’s due to the type of articles that I wrote for the section.

A lot of the sports section last year were recap articles, going over the two weeks of a certain sport before the issue releases. All of them also followed a certain formula. I would start out with a small intro recapping what I previously covered, followed by a simple structure. I would spend a couple paragraphs on each game. The first would cover the opponent and score of the game, while the second would go over any notable stats. Finally, I would end it by bringing up whatever was upcoming on the schedule.

Frankly, that formula did work for the whole year. It allowed me to manage the amount of work to put together the sports section of the newspaper in addition to two part-time jobs, being a full-time student in the Honors program, and an internship.

But, in the long run, relying on that formula might’ve been harmful for my writing skills, especially in the role of co-editor-in-chief.

As one of the co-editors-in-chief, a lot of my work will be done behind the scenes. Alongside my co-editor Morgan, our events coordinator Adrian and the rest of the Editorial Board, we’re going to try and make The Ionian the best it can be.

In addition to that, I’m also going to write an opinion piece for the newspaper.

But writing an opinion piece is different from reporting on sports.

When you’re reporting on sports, you already have an idea of what to report on. If you’re going to report on basketball, you report on basketball. If you write something about soccer, you write about soccer. You know what you’re going to write about and how to write it.

When you write an opinion piece, the world is essentially your oyster. In theory, you can write about whatever you want. I could write about photography, music, fashion or a mix of all three.

I also don’t have a template to rely on for the opinion pieces. But yet, the circumstances remain the same. I’m still a full-time student in the Honors program. I still work two part time jobs. I still do freelance work on the side.

The only thing that’s changed has been what I’m writing about and how I write it, and I’m going to have to learn how to do that in my own voice and in a unique way.