One Year, Many Experiences

Wow! Look at the date. It has been a year since I wrote the first entry in this blog. When I started this blog, I was open minded about its future and its content. I just knew I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences while I matured as a freelancer. Along the way, I have also shared life events and my family with you.

What a year it has been. You have patiently listened as I mull over what it is to be a freelancer. You have heard me grumble about frustrations as a freelancer and celebrated with me when the team I worked with won ENnie awards. You uplifted me when friends passed away and my parents were injured in a car accident. My twin daughters’ Sweet Sixteen birthday was a celebration among friends. You have heard from friends of mine in the game industry as they shared their personal experiences in the game industry and gaming community. You got to see opportunities open up from my freelancing work including guest speaking in editing courses, GameJams with students, and culminating in designing a course in Game Studies to be taught this spring.

Even with all these events and people I have shared with you, what I cherish most is the relationships I have built with many of you. I often speak of relationship building, because I feel that is so crucial to our lives and the success of the gaming community. Your comments, emails, messages, and words of encouragement inspire me to continue writing this blog. I am excited to see what this next year holds for the blog, my freelancing, and my life.

Writing this blog has taught me two very important lessons along the way that I want to share and challenge myself with for the future.

• Share Your Heart – Whether it is writing a blog, chatting on social networks, or talking face-to-face, you have to be honest and heartfelt in your conversations. Honestly, my blog posts where I am most transparent, sharing about my life and what’s on my heart, are the ones that receive the most reads and comments. Posts where I am overly intellectual or trying to prove a point often fade into the background. In this next year, I promise to be more open and transparent with you. I want this blog to be a dialogue where we can share our thoughts and experiences together.
• Be Consistent – The one thing I devoted myself to when I started this blog was to post twice a week (Mondays and Fridays). Amazingly, I have succeeded at that through sheer force of will. There were times I did not even know what to write or did not feel like writing. Yet, each time I would finally sit down and reflect on my past week, projects I was working on, or upcoming things, something would quickly come to mind I wanted to share with you. This consistency helped me build discipline for the blog but also for other things in my life. It also helped knowing you were reading and expecting that next post.

What I am trying to say in this jumble of thoughts and musings is “Thank you!”. I am blessed to have you as readers and friends.