As I woke up at 7:30 on Saturday morning to head to Amherst, Mass., I experienced a strong feeling of dread. Sure, for all the usual reasons.

I’d spent the previous evening at Turning Stone Casino, lost $70 provided to me by a friend and arrived home at 4:15 a.m. Um yeah, three hours of sleep is never a good thing. It could’ve been worse, though. I could’ve had a hangover.

It was also a dreary Saturday morning. The forecast called for rain in Amherst all day. The reason for the voyage, a Syracuse men’s lacrosse game, didn’t particularly thrill me either.

All those things aside, something else bothered me, too. This was it. After three years of covering nearly every conceivable Syracuse sporting event – from women’s soccer, to softball, to field hockey, to women’s basketball and finally football, men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse this year – I’d likely never cover a Syracuse sporting event again. At least, as a Syracuse student.

The Orange managed to make my last event a memorable one, launching a five-goal comeback in the fourth quarter, only to lose in overtime. As I stood on the field conducting interviews at the game’s end, I couldn’t help but smile.

Many times throughout the three years, I’ve complained about my duties. Noon football and basketball games are way too early. Day-long road trips to places like Princeton and Amherst seemed like a waste.

Really, though, I’ll miss it all. For the past three years, I’ve gotten front-row seats to events that students at this school stand outside four hours for, waiting to nab those same seats. (OK, no one stands in the rain or snow for field hockey tickets, but you get the picture).

The last few days, I’ve thought about the things I’ve covered. I watched Syracuse get trampled in the Champs Sports Bowl. Sure, the play wasn’t pretty, but I spent three days for free in Orlando in the middle of December.

I watched from those courtside seats as SU came back against Notre Dame in front of an on-campus record-breaking crowd in late February. Most of my friends watched the game from Chuck’s, and though I wanted to be with them, the atmosphere in the Dome that night was unreal.

I was at Madison Square Garden when Syracuse won its first Big East basketball championship since 1992. A few weeks later I sat in my living room at home, cursing Gerry McNamara as he dribbled the ball off his foot and then missed a desperation 3-pointer against Vermont, costing me a free trip to Austin.

Most recently, after witnessing SU football player Eugene Brown’s arrest on Marshall Street, I chased him around until 4 a.m. with three fellow reporters and friends, only to come up empty. I woke up at 8 a.m. the next day to start the chase again, finally landing the story.

I lost a lot of sleep, but enjoyed the experience and learned a lot. It’s experiences like those I’ll miss.

Reporters – especially sports reporters – constantly are labeled as bitter. While, true in most cases, I’m proud to say after three years of balancing school and nearly a full-time job, I’m not there yet.

I can still appreciate the essence of sports. When covering events I never root for anything (except, of course, a good story to develop), but the games I’m covering still excite me.

Though I could care less if Syracuse won or not, I still smiled when Hakim Warrick put down one of his signature dunks or McNamara buried a clutch 3.

I even learned to appreciate lacrosse – a sport I knew nothing about and cared about even less before I came to Syracuse. Last year, I watched Michael Powell take over the national championship game against Navy. Out of all the athletes at Syracuse, he’s the one whose talent I appreciate the most.

And this past Saturday, despite all the reasons I didn’t want to travel to Amherst, I secretly enjoyed it.

As I begin the job search, and likely start my career covering high school soccer, I’ll likely miss everything about my experiences at SU.

Even the 7:30 a.m. wakeups.