For the final time as a part of the Daily Trojan, I’m firing up Google Docs and writing for a publication I’ve called home for all of my eight semesters at USC.

A central part of that has been my time on the sports staff and eventually getting to write this column for the last five semesters. As is customary in “The Great Debate,” it’s time to talk about all those opinions I didn’t quite have the time to pen down this semester. This will be the last time I’ll get the chance to vocalize my opinions at this paper, so here’s some stuff that I wish I had just a little more time to write about.

I’m going to miss this column and this paper

Okay, so I’m cheating a little bit for my last column, but who cares. This one’s for me. I can’t exactly take credit for the name of this column; it was Patrick Warren’s idea, who was my managing editor during my first semester as a sports editor. I didn’t know what I wanted “The Great Debate” to be until I was literally laying the column out on the page.

I was told the sports editors should be writing a biweekly column to stay engaged with the section and have a byline every once in a while. Quickly, this column turned into my favorite part of the week.

“The Great Debate” was crucial in helping me find my voice as a writer. This was an outlet where I could be creative with my ideas and the way I presented my opinions. There were plenty of times I had zero clue what I was going to write about for a given edition and spent up until the very last second writing — including this one.

I have taken a sense of pride in writing this every two weeks, and it has fulfilled me to get to write what I wanted. It was a relief to have some control over what I wrote when I was often tasked with going to different sporting events against my will because not enough of my staffers would pick up stories. 

I spent so much time in the newsroom that I would get constant texts from friends asking when I would finally be leaving my “jail cell.” It wasn’t easy. I hit a wall near the end of my first semester as sports editor, and at the start of my second. 

Journalism is a thankless job, and that’s the point. But I just felt like I was putting out articles and newspaper pages into the abyss. I would spend 20 hours a week in the newsroom laying out the newspaper, and it seemed like none of it mattered.

Then I wrote this article about this USC reporter who had been suspended from covering USC football. But the next day, I discovered that Jeff Pearlman had written about me as his “college writer you should follow on Xitter.” I had been a fan of Pearlman, who is a New York Times best-selling author and wrote the book that the HBO hit show, “Winning Time,” was based on.

He ended his praise of me with, “Bravo, kid.” Something simple yet endearing. Those two simple words meant the world to me. Having an industry professional read my work and share that reaction was one of the coolest things to happen to me.

It helped me look at all the work I had done and the countless hours I had put in a little differently. Just because not everyone is reading my articles and telling me how great or bad they are doesn’t mean the work wasn’t worth it. I have a passion for what I do here, and as long as that comes through in my work, someone will see that and appreciate that.

It’s weird to think about how that was three semesters ago. I’m a completely different person than who I was then. I feel like I’ve grown so much, and the Daily Trojan has been a huge part of that. I moved up in the paper and had the privilege of serving as the editor in chief.

But all along I’ve had the most fun writing this column — even when I had to battle it out biweekly this semester with sports editor Henry Mode — and getting a chance to find myself in the words I throw on the page. 

As I begin to type my last ever words as a Daily Trojan staffer, I think about all the people who have come and gone before me. The people who taught me everything I know and helped me become a leader at this paper. Then, of course, I think of all the people whom I’ve hired and worked with and am now leaving behind. I know there will continue to be great things at this paper, and I’m sad I won’t get to be a part of that anymore.

It’s bittersweet seeing “The Great Debate” end for the final time. No more articles to turn in after the deadline, and no more arguing with Mode about whose argument is really the “correct one.” So, although I won’t get the chance to write another one of these columns again, we’ll just have to see if my bold claims will stand the test of time — or something sappy like that.

Stefano Fendrich is a senior writing about his opinions on some of sports’ biggest debates in his column, “The Great Debate,” which ran every other Friday. He is also the editor in chief at the Daily Trojan.