Though my drive is ultimately what empowered me to get to Game Informer as an intern, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all of those who’ve helped along the way. 

Writing has always been my greatest joy; in fact, it’s really the only thing I’ve been good at, aside from soccer – and that wasn’t a career choice. But there are a lot of people who can write well, and it’s hard to get noticed – and even harder to follow your dreams. Thanks to a friend of mine, I continued to pursue the dream of writing for a video game website and magazine. 

Just how far have I gone to get here? Here’s an example: I turned down two very good newspaper reporting jobs in the state I grew up in to ensure I could make my way to the Twin Cities to somehow increase my chances of interning or working here. 

I live a stone’s throw away in the woods of Wisconsin. I grew up in a town of just over 100 people. You’re more likely to see deer in your neighbor’s yard than your actual neighbor. Thankfully, it wasn’t a great trek to get here. 

Just months before moving, I worked at a newspaper on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Metal Gear Solid takes place in a fictional area set around the Fox Islands near Kodiak Island, which is where I worked.

I have interviewed with both Andrew Reiner and Jeff Cork for a position at Game Informer in the past. Almost two years after the interview, a co-worker of mine left our paper to work in Fairbanks where he wrote about Cork’s family and their cabin, the oldest house in North Pole. It’s a small world.    

Many of GI’s writers and readers share similar stories: get introduced to a video game system, fall in love with the medium, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

I’ve known since middle school that I’ve wanted – nay, needed – to turn my passion for video games into a career. Writing, learning, observing, and of course, playing video games, at GI can only help me to reach those goals. 

My goal here is simple: learn how to write better stories. I want to write those stories so that readers click away from the website happier, more knowledgeable, or possibly with a laugh (I like to think I can write funny things, but my girlfriend tells me otherwise). 

I also hope – and I really mean this – to play games with the community. It’s not easy to find great gaming communities. Bitmob.com – now defunct and switched over to GamesBeat – had a really good crowd. As far as I can tell over my many years of reading GI’s website, there are a lot of good people here, and without the vitriol found on some sites. 

Hopefully I can interact with people via comments, social media, and gaming platforms. Seriously – hit me up for some Monster Hunter Tri before the servers go down in April. Want to play FIFA 13 online? I’m your man (but if we play against each other, just prepare to beat me. A lot). 

As someone who helps out with the Minnesota Stars Football Club’s (a second-tier professional soccer team based out of Blaine, Minn.) Twitter account, I now understand just how much people love being interacted with – no matter how big or small the interaction.

A few quick notes to make that community either like or dislike me (in a sporting manner, I hope): Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the best Japanese role-playing game on the PlayStation 2; I’ve played every Metroid game except Super Metroid; Final Fantasy Tactics is the best Final Fantasy game, period; Xenogears is one of Squaresoft’s (now Square Enix) best games; and I had no issues with the Mass Effect 3 ending. None. 

On a final note, that friend I mentioned earlier in my introduction has done a lot to keep me on my path of pursuing a video game editorial career. She too was interested in the field, but pursued photojournalism and hard-news journalism first. At 25, she had a lot of time for it later.

Or so I thought. I would have liked to share this blog with her – but she passed away earlier this month. No matter how hard it gets, always follow your dreams, readers. 

Thanks to how inspiring she’s been to me over the years, I’ll never stop.