This is not how it was supposed to end.

On Oct. 2, 2019, I wrote a column entitled ‘The First of Lasts.” In it, I talked about how much I dreaded the end of my time doing everything at Point Park that I cared about. One of those things was my final column.

This is that column.

The closure that I seek to my senior year will never quite be fulfilled. I will never get the last chance to host the Pioneer Sideline for U-View or a final layout session with my peers at this paper. The one thing that not even an international pandemic can take away from me, though, is my final time sitting here with my laptop writing my final “All In with Allison.”

I inherited this column at the beginning of my junior year, and nothing has brought me quite as much joy as going ‘all in’ to the players, staff, coaches and statistics that make up the Point Park athletic department.

I went back and read the first few columns I had ever written, and I just want to thank all of you for bearing with me for those first few weeks. Column writing and journalistic writing are very different and looking back now, it definitely took me a while to get my footing on these leftmost columns of the sports section.

That being said, I am so unbelievably proud of how far this section has come. Not only this little glimpse into my mind every week but the section as a whole.

None of the growth of this section would have been possible without my writers, the former editors that sat at this desk before and with me and especially the current Editor-in-Chief Dara Collins. A huge thank you goes out to all of these people for aiding me in producing such a fantastic section week after week.

Another thank you to the athletes, coaches and staff of the athletic department for allowing me to continuously ask questions and fact check my research to make sure the stories that make it to print are as accurate as possible. (A special thanks to Athletic Director John Ashaolu for being a good sport every time I talked about what big shoes he had to fill. He’s still doing a great job, by the way.)

Like I said before, this is not how it was supposed to end. We were supposed to have a baseball and softball season. We were supposed to watch our fellow Pioneers race to the National Championship in outdoor track and field. We were supposed to celebrate our seniors.

It is the tradition of almost every league in the country to pop champagne after a championship victory. So I invite you all to join me in a sports tradition as old as time itself to celebrate those seniors. (As long as you are of age of course.)

They may not have won a championship (they could have, but we will never get to know), but they deserve to be celebrated even more than a potential River States Conference win.

I will be enjoying a glass in honor of the seniors, this paper, the fact that I was the first female sports columnist of The Globe and our lost commencement ceremony.

To the class of 2020, a toast to all we have accomplished this year. 

Thank you for going on this journey with me.