Well, here goes.

As I write this last column of the summer, its going to be hard for me not to get tearful.

Yeah, whatever!

Its been a blast, and I get to do it all over again in the fall.

For now, thank yous must be said, goodbyes must be waved, and final predictions must be made.

Let’s start with the thank yous, like the ones said at any awards ceremony.

First (sob, sob; giggle,giggle), I’d like to thank all the little people in my life: my little sister Ambika, at a little over four feet, my grandmother at a little under five feet, and my mom at a little over five feet.

Then I’d like to thank my dad for his constructive criticism, my older sister and older brother for their encouragement and my grandfather for his encouragement and unqualified praise.

Thanks to my friends, Aaron, Dan and Jeff for telling me what I’m doing is “cool” and giving me ideas when I needed them.

Thanks to everybody who responded to my column, which let me know somebody’s reading it.

Thanks to my editors for their encouragement and support, and thanks to all the great people at the Daily just for being some of the coolest people on the planet.

And last, but most certainly not least, thanks to my readers.

Goodbye to Chad and Tim, my aforementioned editors, and to everybody leaving the Daily in the fall.

Goodbye to the 90 cents an inch rate and hello one dollar an inch.

Goodbye to Dale Anderson, who took the trouble to play telephone tag with an annoying young reporter.

Goodbye to publishing twice a week and hello to working five days a week.

Goodbye to to one-hour classes everyday and hello to 17 credits.

Goodbye to Kelvin Cato and Dedric Willoughby; hello to Marcus Fizer and Lee Love.

Goodbye to the T.D.s of Iowa State football; hello to Bandhauer and Darren.

Goodbye to the last place football finish and hello to third.

Goodbye to agonizing NCAA robberies and hello to winning it all.

Final predictions for fall:

The Giants will win the October Classic.

The I-Cubs will win the triple-A version.

The Buffaloes will win the College Football National Championship.

The Carolina Panthers win the Super Bowl and Iowa State rocks Iowa in their biggest game of the season.

The ‘Clone basketball squads enjoy unprecedented degrees of success with the men’s team.

ISU will be the last one standing at the Big Dance, which will invite seven Big 12 teams.

The women will crush the Big 12 with their duo senior forwards.

The Bulls win it again, as the Blazers win the West with the help of a guy named Kelvin Cato.

If the Heat signs Willoughby, they mount an even stronger challenge.

If they don’t, God will smite them and they shall fall behind the hated Knicks.

The Cyclone hockey team will finally break the ice (pardon the expression) and win the national championship in their division, while the women’s hockey club enjoys many wins in only its second season.

Like I said, it’s been more fun than I could have ever imagined.

Thanks again to everyone who read my columns.

See you in the fall.

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Jayadev Athreya is a sophomore in math from Ames.