10 years ago I was a working man, married with a teenage kid, busting my ass every day to make a living. I came here looking for info about a game I was playing at the time, I was really into computer games and they were my main way of relaxing after putting in 16 hours at work every day.
I thought at the time that life was going as good as it can, I loved my wife dearly and thought we would always be together. My business had just started really making money, and I was enjoying financial success for the first time in my life. I was pretty well known as part of the Chicago business community, I won a few awards and was on TV every now and then, people actually looked to me for advice
. My kid was growing into an amazing young woman and I was starting to relax a little and thinking maybe I'm going to be OK as a dad and a person.In short, I was living large. The American dream and stuff. What a difference a decade makes.
In those 10 years I lost my wife, first to divorce then to cancer, sold my business (mostly because I was drinking too much to keep it going), moved multiple times, lost a crap ton of money, lost my mind a bit....
Today I'm a stereotypical middle aged dude, divorced, getting a bit soft in the middle, drive a sports car and talk too much and too loud, date women too young for me, retired (for the most part), live in a house way to big for one guy, prone to doing really stupid things, act like I'm 30 years younger than I am, spend money like I have an unlimited supply of it (I don't), really, I do everything a bit too loud, a bit too often, and a bit too much.
Be interesting to see what the next decade brings me, if I make it that long. Thanks for being here for the last 10 years. Very few things in my life have stayed around since a decade ago, this place is one of them. I appreciate that, even though I don't know any of you, I consider many of you as a sort of old friend. Sad or not, it's true.
