goodbyes, and wished me luck.
I remember turning around heading back to my dorm room and thinking "what the hell do I do now?"
At the time, I was an immature freshman who thought he could - despite what my professors said - balance getting his doctorate in physical therapy with drinking in frat house basements on Tuesdays (and four other days per week), and going to Mojos on weekends (yes, I said Mojos).
Surely, I could skate by with minimal work and maximum Xbox with my roommates, because well, it worked in high school and the eight-person Madden franchise was fun. Unfortunately, general manager of a virtual football team can't go on my r?(c)sum?(c).
Two years later I was driving three hours home to Whitesboro, N.Y., praying that I had miraculously passed the chemistry final (in the class that I was re-taking) and a physics exam I was not at all prepared for.
A 1.6 GPA for the spring '10 semester later and I was having a conversation with my dad in our backyard trying to convince him that he should let me come back to UB in the fall.
To this day I'm really not sure how close he was to not letting me return, or if he even would have if I were not already locked in on a lease for an off-campus apartment.
The only thing I know is that I'm glad he did.
And I'm really glad I told them it was a 1.9 and that I wasn't on academic probation (sorry mom), because that definitely would have ended my time at UB.
However, if it weren't for that conversation with my parents I wouldn't be writing this column today, and I most certainly wouldn't have done anything close to what I've been a part of this last year.
When I returned for my junior year I switched my major to communication, because it's what all kids who fail out of their first major do, and it's really easy.
I decided I want to work somewhere within the field that had interested me the most my entire life: sports.
It was here that I started putting thought into my r?(c)sum?(c), and joined WRUB and The Spectrum in subsequent years to cover UB's sports teams.
What I thought would be just a cool thing to do took more time and dedication than really anything I had ever taken up in my entire life.
But the most surprising thing was how much I enjoyed it. For those who don't know, Spectrum editors are required to be in the office pretty much all day on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It was a lot of time, but I wouldn't change it.
I soon found myself hanging out in the office on days I didn't even need to be there, because I liked the work I was doing so much, and liked spending time with my new co-workers even more.
With graduation approaching, I've done a lot of looking back on the past four years, and it's incredible to think how much has changed.
I was a kid who spent freshman year copying chemistry homework from my friends and trying to convince myself that I was putting a lot of effort into my classes because I pulled an all-nighter before the exam. I was someone who always looked for the easy way out, including using Wikipedia for research papers.
Four years later, I'm running the sports section of what I think is a pretty damn good newspaper, and still using Wikipedia on research papers (because I don't care what any professor says, it's a perfectly acceptable source).
I just wish it didn't take nearly flunking out for me to join The Spectrum, because the one semester I was on the editorial board was by far the best one I've had. I made a lifetime of memories and friends in that office.
By the time anyone reads this I will have finished my undergraduate requirements and will be awaiting graduation.
After four years, I'm still not really sure what I learned in the classrooms at UB. But I definitely learned about myself.
It took my entire college career, and one wake up call of a conversation with my dad, but I'm proud of what I accomplished here and who I became.
I just wish I started it sooner, but at least there is something to be said for saving the best for last.
Email:tyler.cady@ubspectrum.com
