Saturday marked my 365th day living in Vicksburg.

And it’s pretty much everything I expected my first year to be.

There’s been frustration, anger, disappointment, fear, hurt, encouragement, belief, excitement, laughter and growth. Not to mention a handful of compliments.

Fairly quickly, I was thrown into the mosh pit of sports reporting. Then-Mississippi State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz rolled through the convention center for the Mississippi State Road Dawgs tour and became my third article as a professional journalist.

To date, my name is on 402 articles, excluding a handful of sports and news briefs.

My writing was greatly improved through trial and error of different styles, methods and an expanded vocabulary. Likewise, my knowledge and understanding of sports have grown.

I’ve come to realize high school basketball is what I enjoy the most. It is my favorite sport and I like following athletes as they develop over time.

Living in a town as small as Vicksburg is still an adjustment for me in more ways than one. As a night owl, big-city bachelor, I love roaming the city with close friends sharing laughs over drinks while watching a late night football game or a big-ticket boxing or mixed martial arts bout at a sports bar.

I’m not interested in gambling and have only been to the casinos twice. Other than that, my time in Vicksburg has mainly been dedicated to work.

Conversely, this year has opened my eyes to seeing sports in a new light.

I’ve written on the budding relationship between baseball and me, and aside from the dominant sports of football and basketball, volleyball was the sport I enjoyed covering the most.

I guess because scoring and certain aspects of volleyball are similar to tennis, I caught on quickly. Not to mention that it was a good season for both Warren Central and Vicksburg.

Another one of my favorite experiences in the past year has to be the Vicksburg vs. Warren Central basketball games. Both gymnasiums were packed wall-to-wall with spectators.

And I owe a big thank you to those I asked to reserve my seat as I talked to coaches between games. I know it wasn’t easy to save one seat for what seemed like a piece of meat to starving latecomers but I truly appreciate your help.