A farewell to the loyal readers of the sports section

A year has flown by.

I can't believe that I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning during my last production day ever at the Central Florida Future , writing my farewell column.

I knew this day would come; I just never knew how I would handle it.

I remember my first assignment as the sports editor for the Future like it was yesterday:

Our photo editor, Katie Dees, and I had decided to trudge up to Memphis (on our own dime) with two of our staff members, Amy Foist and Alex Schierholtz, for the 2010 Liberty Bowl. We didn't think that UCF would beat Georgia, an SEC team, but we thought it would be a fun experience and a good way to get to know each other.

That Liberty Bowl trip to Memphis was, and will always be, the highlight of my young journalism career.

Along with the happiness of my school winning its first bowl game ever, I left Memphis with three things: great multimedia content for the paper and the website, a food coma and a new best friend.

Dees has been my loyal sidekick throughout the year and has done more for me as a photo editor than I could ever imagine. Thank you for being as great as the photos you take, Dees.

I also owe a huge thank you to my wonderful staff of writers, especially my right-hand man, Zeus. I will be passing the sports-editor torch to Steven Ryzewski, who has been amazing covering football and basketball throughout this year. This sports section would not be what it is without him.

Before I took over as sports editor, I had a goal: create an online social-media presence for the Future's sports section.

Thousands of tweets, status updates and follows later, I feel that my goal has been (somewhat) accomplished. Also, now would be the time to plug the Future's sports Twitter account: Follow @CFFsports!

I took over the position of sports editor right when UCF was starting to enjoy its brief reign of athletic greatness. I've covered the Liberty Bowl, the historic undefeated start of last year's basketball season and numerous NCAA Championship tournaments with the men's and women's soccer, track and field, baseball and women's basketball teams.

Now that I'm leaving my position, the football team is hanging out at home during the bowl season, the basketball team lost to Harvard after beating UConn and NCAA allegations have popped up.

UCF Athletics should think of me as a good luck charm, not as that annoying sports editor who they have to send an angry email to once a month.

Anyways, before the kitchen jokes ensue, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for giving me a voice.

Now if you would excuse me, it's time to enter the real world.

Follow Erika Esola on Twitter at @EMEsola.