Happy Birthday Destructoid and Niero!!

I was going to forgo writing a birthday post, since there are so many other things I need to be working on the graduate, but I thought I'd type a quick one out before bed. :P

I'm sure this sentiment is shared by many people, but Destructoid has changed my life. My world would have been a totally different place if it werent for being a part of this community. I remember way back in the day when I first stumbled onto the site and really enjoyed the humor and personality of this new gaming blog. For the longest time I was just a reader of the front page, who would dabble in the forums every so often.

I remember reading a forum post saying that Dexter345 was going to be visiting Berkeley, so I made a point in meeting him. He was an awesome guy to talk to, and around GDC 2-3 years ago he invited me to Dyson's GDC party. This was the first foray into a real-life Destructoid event that I was going to make, and I was pretty nervous. I'd never gone to a party where I was going to be surrounded by all strangers. Not only that, I was an avid listener of Retroforce Go! and the thought of going to Dyson's place was sort of a "OMG internet celebrity" moment.


My first blog post....little did I know what the future would bring!

As soon as I walked in, I knew that I found a second family. I chatted with Dyson about Phantasy Star, played Turtles in Time on a modded Dreamcast, and just had a great time with complete strangers. I also met Chad and Rev Anthony for the first time there, which for me was AMAZING!

I left that party with a longing to stay in touch with the people I met there, like Ben Perlee, Ceark, and others. So I started getting more involved with the website and jumped at the opportunity to go to PAX. This was definitely an eye opening experience, cause suddenly my family grew from a couple of people to at a house party to an entire community. My first PAX was like the catalyst that made me obsessed with being a larger part of the site.

Dtoid Community Discusses, DtoidSF, and everything that I have done and continue to do for the site is done because I knew I found the perfect place on the internet to call home. It's been a crazy juggling act this past year as I try to graduate from my grad school program and take on these extra responsibilities on the community management side of things, but it has totally been worth it.


DtoidSF is the family that I've always wanted away from home. <3


I'm sure I could have been a much harder working grad student #withoutDtoid, but I would not have been as happy as I am now. It was always my dream to be somewhat involved in the gaming industry world, and Dtoid has given me the chance to do that. I probably would never had been able to live my dream of going to E3 if it werent for Dtoid, or work hand in hand with my favorite publisher as a kid, Capcom, in organizing community events.


That's me in that helmet...I'll never forget that experience!

Thanks to you guys, I'm #livingthedream. And I could not have asked for a better group of people to share this with. I love you guys!