What I'm thankful for
Oh jeeze, there's a lot of things I'm thankful for, from the league to real life. Hard to know where to start, not that with my scatterbrained thought process I would be able to keep a coherent line of thinking anyway. I am still going to go ahead and give it a good effort and try to fit everything in, albeit with my typical style ill have no order of importance and I'll just write it down as it comes to mind.
I think I'm going to start with real life, because that comes first and if I didn't have all the things going for me that I do I probably wouldn't have ever been here or lasted as long as I have, which may not be that long yet but I believe it will be given time. So while I said no order of importance, I gotta say my beautiful girlfriend Amber is who I am most thankful for. Really easy to point that one out. I honestly don't know how she has put up with me for as long as she has, I'm not the easiest guy in the world to get along with, but this woman is always right there smiling with me. She's my video game partner, the one person I can talk about anything too, I have told her almost all of my deepest darkest secrets and she is right there by my side. We love a lot of the same things, but have our differences, like right now I'm watching football and she is hanging out with her friends. That perfect balance, I always thought a relationship is better when you have your own things to do separately, and to admit it though I miss her even though we have only been away from each other for a few hours. Maybe I am a bit mushy but when I can reach out and touch her I feel better, my anxiety melts away. She makes me smile by doing absolutely nothing. I can't lie and say our relationship is no effort to maintain, but it is easier with her, we are on the same page so often, and I love seeing her do or accomplish something she wants to do, even when i don't fully understand the desire to do those things. Seeing her smile makes my day every time. I am most thankful for her in my life, and can't wait to one day call her my wife.
Number two on the non numerically important list would definitely have to be the league. It is so well done all in all. Of course the league has its hiccups and drama and share of bad eggs, but boy are they few and far between. Almost everyone in the league is so nice and laid back. You can go to any locker room and ask for help and get about three random people offering advice or solutions to do whatever they can for you. Such a friendly place and community to exist in. How can you not be thankful for such a warm and inviting thing? The production is really well, the drafts are fun to watch. The games are fun to watch, I've yet to watch an awards show with sound, but I imagine those are pretty good as well. Everyone puts in so much hard work for almost no reward to keep this place running and it is pretty amazing for a group of internet strangers to have built something so successful and immersive. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel the success and failure of the teams I'm on. It legitimately effects my mood, I know in the grand scheme of things none of it matters, but at the same time IT FUCKING MATTERS! I care and I'm invested in what I've built and what I've become a part of. I like that I am that connected to it, at the end of the day feeling emotions about and caring about it improves my mood whether positive or negative. I like having something that I'm a part of and that I care about. Sure I would like to see more personal success, but that will come in time, I hope.
I would also like to express appreciation for the Minnesota Grey Ducks. I hate to use the word blessing because I am not the religious sort, but I really can't think of a better term to describe my feelings since having been drafter by the Ducks. It's really been a blessing. They are such a fun group of people to be involved with day in and day out. Its always fun to jump in with the conversation or just do a good bit of honest lurking and reading the conversations taking place. A lot of people are pretty funny in the locker room and also in the war room that I have recently been given access to. The Ducks hired me as an intern and I am so thankful for that. I had some amazing conversations scouting for the Ducks. I'm not so certain that I did as good with everything as I had hoped I would. With the holiday and deer season all hitting at once combined with trying to scout it was a little overwhelming, but I learned a lot during the process of getting my feet wet. I feel like I am much better positioned to do a much more effective and thorough job in the future. So many good guys in the locker room and war room, but I think I gotta throw out a special thank you to TheCC for being my go to guy and answering all my questions and putting up with the anxiety behind the questions. Hell he has even been answering and helping little things in my personal life and is just another perfect example of how great the community is and how awesome the Ducks are in general.
I suppose a clear next on this list to be thankful for is the Yellowknife Wraiths. A team that I asked to be drafted by and they actually drafted me. That is pretty awesome, I really expected one of the other teams to pick me up, because the Wraiths didn't really need me at the time, but it was where I wanted to go at the time. I am also thankful for them calling me up early, although boy did it cause me a lot of mixed emotions because of my love and loyalty to the Ducks. Leaving them mid-season on what might have been a championship run with just a little bit more effort was rough. The whole situation was very interesting but it taught me a lot of things. It also gave me the chance to hopefully jump start what I hope is a hall of fame career. It may not have been the most impressive rookie performance in isfl history, but those touchdowns and yards are way more than I would have had if I hadn't been called up when I was. So I'm thankful for a Jumpstart on my goals when other season 25 running backs were still down in the dsfl. I am also thankful to be a part of the spooky team, I don't think I've really talked about it on here before, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. I grew up watching all kinds of scary movies. My dads horror movie collection was massive, and I absolutely love the entire horror genre. So to be a Wraith and to be really fucking spooky is pretty cool and seems like a legitimately obvious team for me to be on considering my upbringing. I mean my parents used to go all out for Halloween, to bother point where our house was featured in the newspaper for Halloween multiple times across my childhood. A tradition I would like to continue one day when I get everything more figured out, and my lovely aforementioned girlfriend is of the same thought process.
Now I have mixed feelings about this next one, but I suppose I am thankful for my job. I work in a factory as a technician and basically, as long as I keep everything running smoothly I "get to" fuck around on my phone all day. Thats hit or miss, because you never know whats going to happen with these machines on a daily basis. Some days I get home with ten percent battery and some days I get home with ninety percent battery. That however is one more reason I like my job. It isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Some days I do absolutely nothing, and then the very next day I might not get a break on an eight hour shift. It is hard and things will occasionally just not run like they are supposed to. It requires thought and focus and learning from your mistakes to do what I do correctly, and I have to constantly be aware of not only what is happening, but what could go wrong. I've always loved the saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and seeing those bottlenecks and issues ahead of time and being prepared for them is so fun to do. That little sense of accomplishment I get when I stop something before it becomes a problem is a great personal feeling that I know doesn't effect anyone else but me, but I love it. The days when I couldn't figure shit out and feel like I fucked everything up are some of the best days. Getting home angry because work didn't go right is a good feeling sometimes. I like the feeling that I have more to learn. So maybe it makes me a weirdo, but I am pretty thankful for my job.
I'm running out of pretty words and I've droned on long enough, so I figure everything else ill just briefly list. I'm also thankful for my parents, my brother even though he went inactive in this league like a bitch, a few of my coworkers, my gun collection that I lost in a tragic boating accident(sorry atf), my video game collection, hunting season, my uncle for letting me hunt on his ground, all the makers of the TV shows I love, the people who made my guns, and last but not least myself for being pretty cool in my opinion.
Oh jeeze, there's a lot of things I'm thankful for, from the league to real life. Hard to know where to start, not that with my scatterbrained thought process I would be able to keep a coherent line of thinking anyway. I am still going to go ahead and give it a good effort and try to fit everything in, albeit with my typical style ill have no order of importance and I'll just write it down as it comes to mind.
I think I'm going to start with real life, because that comes first and if I didn't have all the things going for me that I do I probably wouldn't have ever been here or lasted as long as I have, which may not be that long yet but I believe it will be given time. So while I said no order of importance, I gotta say my beautiful girlfriend Amber is who I am most thankful for. Really easy to point that one out. I honestly don't know how she has put up with me for as long as she has, I'm not the easiest guy in the world to get along with, but this woman is always right there smiling with me. She's my video game partner, the one person I can talk about anything too, I have told her almost all of my deepest darkest secrets and she is right there by my side. We love a lot of the same things, but have our differences, like right now I'm watching football and she is hanging out with her friends. That perfect balance, I always thought a relationship is better when you have your own things to do separately, and to admit it though I miss her even though we have only been away from each other for a few hours. Maybe I am a bit mushy but when I can reach out and touch her I feel better, my anxiety melts away. She makes me smile by doing absolutely nothing. I can't lie and say our relationship is no effort to maintain, but it is easier with her, we are on the same page so often, and I love seeing her do or accomplish something she wants to do, even when i don't fully understand the desire to do those things. Seeing her smile makes my day every time. I am most thankful for her in my life, and can't wait to one day call her my wife.
Number two on the non numerically important list would definitely have to be the league. It is so well done all in all. Of course the league has its hiccups and drama and share of bad eggs, but boy are they few and far between. Almost everyone in the league is so nice and laid back. You can go to any locker room and ask for help and get about three random people offering advice or solutions to do whatever they can for you. Such a friendly place and community to exist in. How can you not be thankful for such a warm and inviting thing? The production is really well, the drafts are fun to watch. The games are fun to watch, I've yet to watch an awards show with sound, but I imagine those are pretty good as well. Everyone puts in so much hard work for almost no reward to keep this place running and it is pretty amazing for a group of internet strangers to have built something so successful and immersive. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel the success and failure of the teams I'm on. It legitimately effects my mood, I know in the grand scheme of things none of it matters, but at the same time IT FUCKING MATTERS! I care and I'm invested in what I've built and what I've become a part of. I like that I am that connected to it, at the end of the day feeling emotions about and caring about it improves my mood whether positive or negative. I like having something that I'm a part of and that I care about. Sure I would like to see more personal success, but that will come in time, I hope.
I would also like to express appreciation for the Minnesota Grey Ducks. I hate to use the word blessing because I am not the religious sort, but I really can't think of a better term to describe my feelings since having been drafter by the Ducks. It's really been a blessing. They are such a fun group of people to be involved with day in and day out. Its always fun to jump in with the conversation or just do a good bit of honest lurking and reading the conversations taking place. A lot of people are pretty funny in the locker room and also in the war room that I have recently been given access to. The Ducks hired me as an intern and I am so thankful for that. I had some amazing conversations scouting for the Ducks. I'm not so certain that I did as good with everything as I had hoped I would. With the holiday and deer season all hitting at once combined with trying to scout it was a little overwhelming, but I learned a lot during the process of getting my feet wet. I feel like I am much better positioned to do a much more effective and thorough job in the future. So many good guys in the locker room and war room, but I think I gotta throw out a special thank you to TheCC for being my go to guy and answering all my questions and putting up with the anxiety behind the questions. Hell he has even been answering and helping little things in my personal life and is just another perfect example of how great the community is and how awesome the Ducks are in general.
I suppose a clear next on this list to be thankful for is the Yellowknife Wraiths. A team that I asked to be drafted by and they actually drafted me. That is pretty awesome, I really expected one of the other teams to pick me up, because the Wraiths didn't really need me at the time, but it was where I wanted to go at the time. I am also thankful for them calling me up early, although boy did it cause me a lot of mixed emotions because of my love and loyalty to the Ducks. Leaving them mid-season on what might have been a championship run with just a little bit more effort was rough. The whole situation was very interesting but it taught me a lot of things. It also gave me the chance to hopefully jump start what I hope is a hall of fame career. It may not have been the most impressive rookie performance in isfl history, but those touchdowns and yards are way more than I would have had if I hadn't been called up when I was. So I'm thankful for a Jumpstart on my goals when other season 25 running backs were still down in the dsfl. I am also thankful to be a part of the spooky team, I don't think I've really talked about it on here before, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. I grew up watching all kinds of scary movies. My dads horror movie collection was massive, and I absolutely love the entire horror genre. So to be a Wraith and to be really fucking spooky is pretty cool and seems like a legitimately obvious team for me to be on considering my upbringing. I mean my parents used to go all out for Halloween, to bother point where our house was featured in the newspaper for Halloween multiple times across my childhood. A tradition I would like to continue one day when I get everything more figured out, and my lovely aforementioned girlfriend is of the same thought process.
Now I have mixed feelings about this next one, but I suppose I am thankful for my job. I work in a factory as a technician and basically, as long as I keep everything running smoothly I "get to" fuck around on my phone all day. Thats hit or miss, because you never know whats going to happen with these machines on a daily basis. Some days I get home with ten percent battery and some days I get home with ninety percent battery. That however is one more reason I like my job. It isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Some days I do absolutely nothing, and then the very next day I might not get a break on an eight hour shift. It is hard and things will occasionally just not run like they are supposed to. It requires thought and focus and learning from your mistakes to do what I do correctly, and I have to constantly be aware of not only what is happening, but what could go wrong. I've always loved the saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and seeing those bottlenecks and issues ahead of time and being prepared for them is so fun to do. That little sense of accomplishment I get when I stop something before it becomes a problem is a great personal feeling that I know doesn't effect anyone else but me, but I love it. The days when I couldn't figure shit out and feel like I fucked everything up are some of the best days. Getting home angry because work didn't go right is a good feeling sometimes. I like the feeling that I have more to learn. So maybe it makes me a weirdo, but I am pretty thankful for my job.
I'm running out of pretty words and I've droned on long enough, so I figure everything else ill just briefly list. I'm also thankful for my parents, my brother even though he went inactive in this league like a bitch, a few of my coworkers, my gun collection that I lost in a tragic boating accident(sorry atf), my video game collection, hunting season, my uncle for letting me hunt on his ground, all the makers of the TV shows I love, the people who made my guns, and last but not least myself for being pretty cool in my opinion.