Thanks, Danke, Grazie, Salamat!

I started this blog maybe a year or so ago because I wasn’t able to tweet all of my incredibly important, and very crucial, thoughts into 140 characters. And I started to tweet because I was going to a conference in New Orleans and I thought it would be a good way to document my trip (turns out the hotel didn’t have free wifi and I didn’t know you could tweet via sms so nothing got tweeted). Eventually, over time, my Twitter became my soccer outlet. The first people (besides the handful of family/friends that gmail recommended me to follow) I followed were TFC players: Jimmy B, Danny Dichio, and DeRo. All three followed me back and I was amazed. Once, Dichio even replied to a DM. I couldn’t believe it, through Twitter I had this connection with people I would normally never get to communicate with.

Eventually I started to follow regular folk (or, “normies”), people who, like me, weren’t superstar players but just wanted to get their opinions across. Eventually I made myself a little network of people who’s opinions and thoughts I looked forward to, and eventually we began  chatting about things other than soccer. They were great folks (err… I suppose still are) and I am grateful to have like-minded people out there to converse with.

However, some have gone above and beyond just friendly chatting. And I am very blessed that these individuals have taken an interest in me, and also, my writing. I wish I could thank you each individually for everything you have ever given me or done for me, all because of a little social networking site. I'll at least try:

Thank you for reading my blog, for chats in coffee shops, for playing practical jokes on certain goal keepers (and, for a video, which I am still trying to figure out how to load on here), for getting me tickets to games, for fixing the weather, for being quotes in my thesis, for reading materials, youtube videos, and BEING ABREAST OF THINGS (it was too good to waste!), for waiting half an hour because I didn’t look left (and having wonderful, enlightening dinner conversation), and, my latest, for making my first TFC game of the season not only incredibly memorable, but incredibly surreal in the most amazing way possible (see below).

I am really lucky for every opportunity the TFC twitter community has offered me and I hope one day I will be able to repay everyone. When my thesis becomes an award winning, life changing, added-to-every-university-reading-list, book, you’ll get a mention. Promise.

Thanks guys. Really. Truly.

Hopp,

scm.