I've always wanted to attend the University of Iowa, and boy did it not let me down.
I graduate from the University of Iowa in exactly four hours.
That's a sentence I knew I would type at some point, but I can't believe I'm finally here.
Four years have gone by in the blink of an eye. The emotions are certainly mixed, but I'm definitely not as emotional as some of my other peers.
Staying in Iowa City to cover the Hawkeyes for HawkeyeRoundtable.com is why those emotions are suppressed, but as I don the black and gold cap and gown for the first and only time, I'm so thankful to this place for allowing me to continue to live out my dream.
Throughout middle school and high school, people would always ask me what I wanted to do with my life. While other students would go back-and-forth between becoming a doctor or a lawyer, my answer was always the same - study journalism at Iowa and then hopefully land a job covering the Hawkeyes in some fashion.
That dream is now a reality, and it wouldn't be possible without the University of Iowa.
Like many freshman, I arrived at Catlett Residence Hall completely clueless. I thought I knew everything, but it took only a few days to realize that wasn't the case. Passing classes was the easy part, but getting involved in clubs and making friends was going to be the hard part.
I was fortunate to establish great friendships right away, but I really only did three things my freshman year - do homework, eat, and attend as many Iowa games as I could before I started covering them.
I knew I needed to do something with my degree at this point. That rare sliver of motivation led me to applying for The Daily Iowan. What was initially planned to be a short stint evolved into the best 2.5 years of my life.
Six months after being hired at the DI, I was sitting in the press box covering my first-ever Iowa football game and listening to Kirk Ferentz's postgame press conference. A one-off trial game quickly led to me earning a coveted spot on the football beat by the following season.
The rest, as they say, was history.
I hope to stay on the Iowa beat for my entire journalism career, but if you've followed the industry lately, you know that may not be a possibility.
Journalism will take me all over the country. Journalism will give me the greatest joys in life, but also the greatest stress one can ever experience - writing in an empty stadium or arena on deadline.
Journalism will give me sleepless, lonely nights in hotel rooms. Journalism will force me to go outside of my comfort zones and consistently challenge myself.
But through it all, I'll always have one thing to hold on to.
When Hayden Fry announced his retirement after 20 seasons as Iowa's head football coach in 1998, he uttered this simple phrase - "I'll always be a Hawk."
Today, I can also proudly say that I'll always be a Hawk.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io