We fight for tomorrow 'cause that's all we have.

So I have started a new job in Albany working at Vicarious Visions. It has been a dream of mine to be part of the video game industry for years now. I spent the last four years studying the game industry at school in order to finally one day jump on board. And here's a recap since my last post.

My last post really didn't talk about my life at all. I spent my last summer of college in Burlington and I can honestly say that it was the best summer of college that I have ever had. I was able to basically live in Burlington for free for an entire 3 months. My housing was paid by Champlain College since I took the role as RA. I only had to pay for 40 meals on a meal plan for a 3 month summer which was cheap. I had a huge room in the basement all to myself with only a couple residents in the entire house with me. Since I was in the basement, it was nice and cold for me every time I came back to my room. Along with having almost no residents, I had a new, but incredibly close, friend only a couple rooms away. Her name is Simi and she constantly helped me while I constantly helped her throughout the entire summer and continuing on throughout the year. I also spent every single night I had off hanging out with Jordan, Sean, and Chris. Any day that we were all off we would also head down to the beach and just sit and drink. Those were the best days. I was basically paid to watch 5 or 6 kids about twice a week. These kids were so self sufficient that I really didn't even have to do anything at all too.

I found out that I also loved riding my (new) bike around Burlington. Yes, I got to obtain a bike that was left in the basement of Pearl last year and it was amazing. I was able to ride it around everywhere and the bike never really gave out. I spent many nights riding that around Burlington at 3 a.m. when no one else was around. It was a refreshing change from walking around alone in the dark.

I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my family this last summer of my college career. The one week I was home was the week that the rest of my family went to NC for a vacation. I spent the entire week alone at home with my dog and my cat, which I was really actually happy with. I......I spent my last day with my dog during that break too. I love you Hailey. You were always there to keep me company. You were also always there for my dad, who took your passing worse than us all. I still miss you to this day. You were my birthday dog, having the same birthday as my own and being with us since I was like 10.

The summer finished with me moving into my new housing at Whiting Hall. I moved in knowing that this year was going to be exciting and that it was going to be worth the sacrifice of a weekend a night. Meeting my new Co-RA Chris was also great. We got along amazingly and the only problem was that we wanted to hang out with each other outside of the dorm, at night.

I started senior year on two different teams. Team H&H was my team. It was the team that I wanted to be part of more than anything. I had Jeremy and Anciello on a team, making a game, and we loved it. We also had Andrew, who in my opinion was a god damn machine. We did our best without a programmer and came out with an amazing concept in my opinion. Team 2 was TFiL. While I didn't have the initial pull to TFiL as I did at the end, it eventually grew on me. We had an amazing concept, but we just didn't have the follow through. The Floor is Lava is a great idea for a platformer, but with a 3 person + producer team, we had an incredibly hard time. Both teams put out great final alpha's, but in the end, neither were picked. I truly feel that either of our games were better than some of the others that were made, but the school had to take forward certain 2d games in order to keep certain people involved.

So, I spent the first semester on those two projects, but was unable to continue on them. During Christmas break, I was assigned to a new team. I was promptly notified from a member on that team that I wasn't welcome or wanted, so I forwarded that on to the professors. The professors took that and decided I would be more effective on a different team. I then joined different team. This new team, I won't name it on here cause I don't want it linked based on the name, is on my website. Anyways, we continued for 4 months and made and incredible voice-activated first person shooter. A month after finishing the game and I am still damn glad that I was part of it. We created something incredible and I will always look back on it as one of the best projects that I worked on in college.

Other than game design projects, I spent a large portion of my time being an RA, which, looking back on, was an awful experience, but looks great and saved me a large amount of money. I gained a couple friends from the position and we all helped each other get by. I spent my nights off with the greatest people I could ask for, relaxing at a karaoke bar and singing like drunken idiots at least once a week. When I wasn't there, I would spend my nights off with Jordan, Sean, Chris, BT, and whoever else was hanging around. I will miss those nights. They were, are, and always will be, my brothers in arms.

Other than this, I did the usual things. Relaxed when out of class, had fun while in class, and just tried to enjoy the overall experience of my senior year. When Senior week came around I enjoyed spending my free time with the kids that I will miss. I went bowling and acted like an idiot with gamers, I went to graduation practice and tried to make the best of a boring time, and I went on the boat cruise, ending college the exact way that I started it.

Graduation was the first time that my parents had seen me with my friends or in my college element since they dropped me off the first day. I was nervous that I would disappoint, but I made sure that graduation was all about them and them getting to see their son graduate from college.

In the weeks leading up to graduation I was spending a large amount of my time applying to every single company for open positions that I felt that I was qualified for. I got a whole lot of responses that said no. I never let this get me down though. I kept applying and eventually got a position in QA at Vicarious Visions after I aced their interview. While I am only in a contract temporary position, I am happy to be in the position I am in. I test games every day and am in a job where I can truly be happy to go to it every single day.

I am living on my own now, in an apartment in Albany. It is an incredibly small studio apartment, but I am able to enjoy it. I do miss interaction with people though. The only human interaction I really get is at work. I wish I had people near me that I was able to see daily, but I had to give up certain things in order to take the job that I wanted.

So, that is a simplified version of my last year. I am sure that there are some things missing, but I will be able to come back to any of that later.