January was a long, trying month. So in lieu of a long post about my monthlong journey, I decided to post links to some of the stories I wrote in the past 31 days. There was tons traveling, a lot of good times and, unfortunately, much sadness as well. Overall, when I look back at January 2012, I will consider it a celebration of life.

I ended the college football season with stops at the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship game in New Orleans. After the LSU-Bama game, I talked with Alabama RB Trent Richardson and found out he’d actually committed to the “goals” project we started at the beginning of the season. I felt like I’d won a national championship, myself! READ THE MAGAZINE PIECE HERE.

On January 19, freeskiing pioneer Sarah Burke died from injuries sustained while training in the Park City halfpipe a week earlier. Sarah was an incredible woman who opened so many doors for athletes in her sport and I am proud to have called her my friend. The day she died, I wrote this piece for ESPN.com. YOU CAN READ IT HERE.

The following week, the Winter X Games were dedicated to celebrating Sarah’s life. Wednesday night, I attended the Powder Awards and spent the day talking to her friends about how they would celebrate her memory. YOU CAN READ THAT STORY HERE.

The rest of the Winter X Games was a blur. Besides writing daily feature stories for ESPN.com, I also hosted X Cast, our live online companion broadcast to the TV broadcast. Talk about trial by fire!

Also last week, we launched our ESPN Any Era project. For about a month, I spoke with many NFL Hall of Famers for the project, which was rolled out slowly over the week. I also wrote two stories for ESPN.com, one of which also ran in the magazine.

ESPN.COM: TOUGH WIDE RECEIVERS ARE HARD TO FIND.

ESPN THE MAGAZINE: TOUGH OR DIRTY? HOFERS WEIGH IN ON NDAMUKONG SUH. HE RESPONDS. 

Also last week, we launched our Olympics coverage with an E-ticket I wrote on gymnast Jordyn Wieber. Get to know her name. You’ll be hearing it a lot in the next few months. This piece was posted in celebration of six months to London. READ IT HERE.

And now, I nap.