Thursday, November 27, 2008

On the subject of Being Thankful

One year ago, I approached thanksgiving with the strangest feeling. My prevailing attitude was that it had been another year that I just wanted to forget, and that my thanks were towards the calendar for the year to be close to being over.

What a difference a year makes. As I am lying down on my bed, resting from the soreness that is a given to a 45 year old who has just played football, I realize that this year, I am actually thankful for where I am and what I have become.

For the first time in the fifteen years since moving to the northwest, I feel like I have found an atmosphere in which I can breathe.

The biggest difference has been friends, and the fact that I feel like I have found some good ones. Just a year ago, responsibility and obligation seemed to take 100 percent of my time. Now, through a journey of discovery and cyberspace, I have found new creative outlets and, with them, great relationships.

It began with an incredible group of people in Improv 201 class in the spring. I arrived as an experienced student who was not sure what to expect. I arrived hoping I would be accepted for the person I was, not the person I had thought myself to be. Through eight weeks of scenes, socializing and tater tots, not only did I find acceptance, I found a group of incredible people that felt like friends.... fifteen years in the making.

From those friends, I discovered the joys of blogging, that has allowed me to hopefully entertain you, make you think, and feel like you might not be alone when you think you are. I have to thank Little Miss Notetaker and Adjil for providing the inspiration for the genesis of the blog, and to all the readers for keeping me going.

I have discovered the social network of Facebook, which has been an incredible part of enjoying life and sharing with others. Status updates and red dots can make my day, as even if it is in the relative obscurity of cyberspace, it still gives me a connection to friends, past and present.

I have to thank Teacher Doug for introducing me to Karaoke, and to Amy Winehouse for sending me to Rehab over and over.

While new improv classes came and went, there was never a feeling quite like that 201 class. Don't get me wrong, there were flashes of brilliance in those new groups, and I enjoyed them immensely. That chemistry, the illusive chemistry, was hard to recapture. Maybe I was trying too hard, or maybe it was just simple science.

The 201 class rejoined for some reunion events like karaoke, and we would go to shows together, and they always were among the best times I had this year.

Then last Sunday, the core group of the 201 class, with the addition of a few members of the most recent 201 class banded together for the first rehearsal of a new improv group. From the opening moments, we felt chemistry, and the desire to see where it might take us. In a word, it was awesome... not for the brilliant scenes, but for that feeling of chemistry, without effort.

Friends... real friends... not work friends... not shared friends... real friends. It was something I had not experienced in years... and it opened the doors.

It allowed me to see the joy of friendship without obligation, without work. I could enjoy the company of people not because they needed me to do something, just because they enjoyed my company - and I theirs. That, to me, was an unbelieveably new feeling.

So to my improv friends, thanks for giving me a new lease on friendship life. To my new friends via the blog and Facebook, thanks for including me in your cyberlife. To the people who have become my friends from coaching to life at the unnamed university to life outside of sports, I thank you.

And last, and probably most importantly, thanks to those who are closest to me for your love, your support and your kindness through the trying times of the past three years, and hopefully the joy to come. Honey, you are the reason I am able to wake up every day and tackle life. I just hope I can inspire you as you have inspired me.

And now, a new adventure begins... one for which I can thank each of you for giving me the courage to undertake... and it should be amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving All,

Yours truly,
Johnny Blogger

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