Edit Desk: Dear past me

Dear past me, 

It’s been five months since you wrote your last edit desk, “Dear future me,” a letter to myself, and boy, do I have a lot to tell you.

Let’s start with a check in, just like we used to do in our Student-Athlete Mentor meetings — and before you ask, yes, you do miss going to those so much more than you will expect. A low is that life is weird without soccer in it, but a high is that you are doing more than fine without it.

You’ve still been driving over the mountain to and from Goodman Campus on a regular basis, but not to train or lift; instead, you’ve been working tennis matches, basketball and lacrosse games.

Steve Lomangino, Kelly Rohrer, Tommy Biltcliff and Justin Lafleur from the Sports Communications and Multimedia Department have been keeping you plenty busy with your internship.

And because I just can’t wait any longer to tell you, you got into graduate school at Syracuse University.

I’d let you take a moment to have that sink in, but truth-be-told, it still doesn’t feel real.

You’ll be pursuing a masters degree in broadcast and digital journalism on the sports media and communications track at the one, the only, Newhouse School of Public Communications, just like we dreamed.

I never thought I’d be wearing orange and blue again after high school, but we’ll learn to love it just like we did with brown and white.

In just over three months, you’ll be on your way to Syracuse, New York, for what I hope is the greatest year of your life, but I’ll let our future self answer that one in due time.

To prepare your on-air persona, Lehigh Sports gave you opportunities to conduct post-game interviews at Lehigh’s basketball games.

Nic Lynch, a senior on the men’s basketball team, was the first person you ever interviewed. You got the same butterflies that you would get before soccer games, which told me that we were doing the right thing — being a reporter truly is our calling.

You’ve also created a new segment called The Brown and White Weekly Sports Update, where you talk about the past week’s sports results in review. I’m still not comfortable looking and listening to myself talk when I edit it over, but hey, we have to start somewhere!

And while all of what I just told you is exciting, I know you are wondering about how you are doing without playing soccer and seeing your teammates every day.

Feelings of joy, anger, sadness and wishing that it would have happened differently come and go in waves, but trust me when I say that you left the program in a better place than how it was when you came into it.

And prepare yourself for when you play soccer tennis with your brother Oakley — while I will never admit it to his face, he really does give you a run for your money.

There are five weeks left in the semester as of when this is published, and for once I’m wishing that time would slow down. I feel so present here, to the point that I could not wait to come back after spring break. In fact, you came back on Sunday night instead of Monday morning — talk about growth.

You have been asking yourself, “Why could I not have felt this way sooner?” 

Of course I am just starting to have fun right before it all comes to an end.

But everything happens for a reason, and I’ve been lucky enough to understand that reason over these past five months.

You really begin to enjoy it, and I am so proud of us for that.

To our future self, I look forward to hearing all that you accomplish. May you look at your time at Lehigh as one of the best things that could have ever happened, not to you, but for you.

Until then, continue to be a role model for Oakley and give our dogs lots of treats for me. May your love for all of them be what grounds you, no matter what is to come.