As Post Malone says in his hit song “On the Road”: “’Cause they ain’t ever seein’ me fold under pressure, They ain’t never, ever seen me fold, nah, never”

Those lines quickly turned into my mantra when I was hired as the sports editor in April of last year as COVID quickly ripped away everything I loved. As the uncertainty of college sports loomed large over the summer, I was stressed out of my mind but couldn’t stop laughing about how oddly fitting it was that my final ride at the Chrony would be one that I would never forget.  

Even with that uncertainty, I kept grinding, even though there were days when I felt like closing up shop because nothing seemed to be going right. With events being canceled days before, access to student-athletes and coaches reduced to a minimum as well as doing everything remotely, I wanted to scream, this wasn’t how my senior year was supposed to go but I wasn’t going to fold just because of that. Holding this title was my dream from the day I stepped onto campus and I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. 

Was it a perfect year? No. But I’m not only extremely proud of what I did but also my desk and the paper as a whole, not many people can say they kept a whole college paper afloat in the middle of a pandemic but, look at us. 

First off, to my family and friends, thank you for supporting me. Having such a strong core of people in my corner to tell me to keep pushing on keeps me going. Thank you to Utah Athletics for allowing me to tell these stories of these amazing student-athletes. 

I want to thank my girls, Maddy LaTurner and Palak Jayswal for being two of the best friends a girl like me could ask for, I honestly don’t know where I would be without y’all. 

To my writers: thank you. Thank you for letting me lead you through this crazy year. I know it wasn’t anything like we would have hoped it to be, but I’m glad you all stuck with me through it. Thank you for giving it everything you got, despite everything they threw at us. 

And to my assistant, Cole Bagley, thank you. Thank you for going on this wild ride with me. We didn’t even know if we were going to have sports when we took these positions last year, but here we are, on the other side of a global pandemic still kicking. Thank you for putting up with my constant berets of texts about everything from who was going to edit which story to which sneakers or jersey we should buy. Thank you for being patient with me when I had to ask you the same question four times because I was so scatterbrained or overwhelmed. And thank you for being a friend and someone I could talk to so candidly about stuff that was on my mind. I couldn’t have done any of this without you. And I know we didn’t get to do things like we would have hoped, but we still made the most of it. I know wherever life leads you, you will kill it just like you did with this. 

There are so many other people that have impacted my life and even if you don’t see your name, just know that I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Even just a quick text telling me you enjoyed a story means more than you would ever know to me. 

I don’t know what the future holds for me but one thing is for sure, the grind will never stop because as Post Malone also said “I’m goin’ hard ’til I’m gone, ’til I’m gone, ’til I’m gone, yeah,” and that’s going to be the new motto after this crazy year. 

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