Collegiate Times

Previous recipients of the quilt have been those affected by the events of September 11 as well as those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Time.

Each day, each event is measured in hours, minutes, seconds and then lost to eternity.

A precious few are not.

They linger. Committed to memory. Treasured. Four years at Virginia Tech are just that:

Timeless.

It's the first time you stepped into a classroom as a freshman. It's the time you took your first test, ate your first Philly cheese steak at Owens, or attended your first class in McBryde 100. It's the first time you went to a football game at Lane Stadium.

Those moments linger.

At the beginning of April, I sat down in the Collegiate Times office and looked through the hundreds of different newspapers that have graced the newsstands over the past four years. There, I found my first story.

The article was about Scott Spangler, a freshman soccer player with some amazing skills. I'll be honest, it was not the best piece of work I've ever done, but I spent hours on it. I took the time to interview him in his room. I talked to Coach Oliver Weiss and crafted what I thought was a masterpiece.

I was proud of that article when it was published, and my name stood alone underneath the headline. Reading it last month for the first time in four years gave me a good laugh, and made me realize how far I had come.

Since that day, I've had countless of articles published. I can't even begin to think of how many I've written since the beginning of my freshman year. I just don't have the time to look through and count them all.

From baseball to wrestling, if you name it, I covered it in some fashion. I remember writing a wrestling story about three years ago while Tom Brands was still the head coach.

Brands is a very intense individual and is extremely intimidating when you talk to him. I didn't know a thing about the wrestling team. Now, I relied on him for all of my info. So, I began to fire questions left and right. He didn't hesitate on any question, and after the interview was finished, we started to part ways when he turned back.

"Hey Clark, you ask tough questions," the 1996 Olympic gold medalist said. "I like that."

Those few words from a guy as respected as Tom Brands really spoke volumes. It was at that very moment that I knew that writing was more than just a job. It was a passion.

That passion has led me to places I'll never forget. In my four years, I've traveled to Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Miami and other college towns plastered throughout the east coast. I spent hundreds of hours on the road. Probably the most memorable trip was to Durham when the men's basketball team took on Duke earlier this season.

One of my best friends and graduate manager for the team, Ben Thompson, came up to me during warm-ups before the game. We talk before every game as a ritual, but this time he guaranteed victory.

Shot after shot fell, and the Hokies were on their way to upsetting the Blue Devils. There were so many distraught Cameron Crazies hanging over me. Every time something major happened, Ben and I would look at each other and smile. Tech won that day, 69-67 in overtime.

That is one of those times that linger.

The times don't stop there. It's the trip to the Sugar Bowl and the win over No. 1 North Carolina inside a steamy Cassell Coliseum. It's the time spent on a journey to Atlanta to watch the Hokies come back from a 14-point deficit on a Thursday night game on ESPN.

Times like those will never fade.

Growing up mere miles from Blacksburg, I always wanted to be a Hokie. I only filled out one college application as a senior in high school. I lived, breathed and loved Virginia Tech. I wore the same raggedy old 'VT' hat every day to school for five years.

Continue Reading: 12 Next »