Wow! Thanks everybody! You sure know how to make a guy feel appreciated.
Honestly I really needed to hear this. I was feeling kinda down about all sorts of things yesterday. Thanks a bunch for cheering me up!
Funny thing is I still really feel like a kid in most respects, turning 33 is sorta surreal. I think of my whole life up to this point, and everything I thought I'd do by this point in my life and feeel like I haven't had enough time yet to reach those goals. But then I remember all the things I have done, and all the unexpected surprises along the way and I realize that I've led a very full accomplished life, and I'm still going!
For those of you who don't know, before I devoted myself to all things Halo I had a fairly distinguished career in sculpture. I'm lucky enough to have some sculpture on display in a few very respectable museums, and have worked on national monuments and lots of public sculpture. I loved my work but it wasn't very satisfying to me on a personal level. I wasn't getting much credit for all the hard work that I was doing. When I reached a breaking point in my residency at a local college I decided that I had spent enough of my life making other people rich and famous and I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing work I was truly interested in. Finding this website has really filled in a major portion of that... I suppose in a number of ways it's refocused my goals and a big part of that is taking the skills that I've learned and passing them on to people who really appreciate the knowledge. Being a part of a community thats just as obsessed with this craft as I am is every bit as satisfying and rewarding as I had hoped it would be.
So thanks, right back at you guys (and gals!) Thanks for allowing me to help and thanks for all the help you've given me. Most of all thanks for helping an old fart remember thats you're only as old as you want to be!..
Heres to the 405th, and building a community for us all!
-Sean