Mission 100 days: Getting busy living

By: Peter Neville, Assistant Sports Editor

As I sat down to write the story of my time at Canisius, I struggled with where to start. Although I started here in 2022, I feel like I have been at Canisius my entire life. I am the fourth person in my family to attend this school, following my mom, dad and my older sister, Rose, and without their influence, I do not think that I would have ultimately ended up picking their alma mater. 

My mom and older sister have really been with me every step of the way through my school experience, constantly pushing me to try and do better as I struggled through high school and bemoaned the idea of going to college. Without them, I do not know what I would have done after graduating high school. I think that their constant pushing of me to want to do more is one of the things that led me to Canisius. But I think the real determining factor was wanting to walk the same halls and sit in the same classes and lecture halls that my father did over 30 years ago. My father passed away when I was just six years old, and I feel like for most of my life I have been searching for ways to be more like him. Whether it be an early obsession with World War II history or deciding to play football in middle and high school, oftentimes I make decisions unconsciously to try and walk the same path he did. And I can confidently say, as I sit 78 days away from graduation, walking the same halls that he did,  that the decision to go to Canisius was the right one.

When I first arrived at Canisius, I fell into many of the same poor habits that led to my struggles in high school. I was unmotivated by my classes and uninterested in the subject matter. I dropped my first of two majors, criminal justice, after my first semester. After dropping that major, I dabbled in history classes alongside my core curriculum before declaring my second major, education. That lasted just as long as the first – about a semester. It was at this point, heading into my sophomore year, that I decided I needed to pursue my passions if I wanted to find any meaning in the work that I do on a day-to-day basis. I ended taking Journalism 101 with Dan Higgins and joined The Griffin, which were some of the best decisions I made while at Canisius. While learning the basics of journalism with Higgins, I felt that I had finally found a medium to express myself creatively and see my work come to life, and for the first time, over a year into my time at Canisius I didn't feel out of place. 

Working with The Griffin as a contributor opened up so many opportunities for me. I quickly was able to get myself published in print for the first time and rode the high of learning on the fly how to cover sports I'd barely even watched before. Every day felt like a new challenge, from getting in contact with sports information directors (SIDs) to conducting in-person interviews with people I've never even met before. The sports editor at the time, Colton Pankiewicz, did his best at putting the people under him in positions to succeed, and I can only hope that I've done a fraction of that for other contributors in my time on staff like he did for me. 

As Colton left the staff and I ascended to assistant sports editor, now working under Colin Richey, I finally felt like I had a purpose on campus. I had gone from trying to spend as little time on campus as possible to being responsible for helping get the sports section out weekly, which, despite me and Colin’s impeccable record, was and is still no small task. 

So much of what I managed to accomplish here on campus is because of that little corner of our office, adorned with sports sections of years past, and in particular because of the aforementioned sports editor, Colin Richey, who has become one of my best friends over the last two years. With every print, I feel like we have more and more fun, whether it be playing Madden in the office, starting a fake band or playing Sporcle quizzes. I know there's always something fun happening in our corner every Thursday night. The other people on staff I want to thank by name are the duo unfortunately just ahead of me and Colin in The Griffin’s favorite duo rankings, Hannah Wiley and Kaitlin O’Meara. I will forever cherish the late-night talks they shared with me and Colin after print nights and the jokes that were made along the way, including the group chat name that can NEVER see the light of day. It was always a joy to be pushed by Hannah to write for her while she was the features editor, and I come out of Canisius a much better writer because of it. And I will always enjoy hearing about the different adventures that Kaitlin went on, whether it be going to Madrid, Cuba or the southern border, and I can't wait to see where she goes next. 

And to everyone who has worked on The Griffin, who I can’t mention by name, I thank you for being a part of something greater than yourself. Student journalism is real journalism, and what we do here every Thursday is so important to what we do as a school.

Just like I struggled to start this, I struggled to try and find a way to end it. Should I try and come up with a snappy one-liner to try and encapsulate my time here at Canisius? Or should I try to find some profound quote that is apropos to what I have learned while I was here?

No, I decided to end this by quoting the best movie ever made, “The Shawshank Redemption,” a fact you will hear from me if you ever spend more than five minutes in my presence. It’s something that I wish I had told myself earlier in my Canisius career: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”