2023 IN REVIEW

2023 was a tough year not going to lie… Thank you Lord for always be constant and for being in control. I am sometimes forgotten to let you control the wheel. 

Here are 5 things that happened this year: 

1. Meeting my Best Friend IRL- If you don’t know, I’ve been traveling a lot… and some would say A LOT. I’ve been to NJ/MD/PA, GA, MN, WI, and Puerto Rico. I’ve met some of my closest friends via online gaming… but I met my best friend through this group. Zack and I first became friends in 2020 through VALORANT and from there our friendship grew. We met for the first time IRL in January when I made a trip to see him in his hometown. I feel like our friendship turned into a brotherhood the more and more we talked and started playing games with each other. We created a brotherhood that I love and enjoy… I cannot fathom having anyone else to be my best friend other than him. I cherish all of your conversations and interactions with each other. As the Dark Night, I still need a Graynight.  I love you, Zack! 

2. Severing on SS Staff- This year of my 4th year serving on the SS Staff and it was the last year in my term. I got to serve alongside both Xh. Chris’, Soua, Sean, Steve, and Esha. This crew was undoubtedly AMAZING! We were a young crowd that looked like we shouldn’t be running a national Baptist camp… but we did. We let God take control of our situations that we had going into camp and He gave us blessing after blessing after blessing. All the glory goes to Him! I have a special place in my heart for all of the staff members that I had the pleasure of serving alongside with. We have gone through the thick and thin of it all together and even staying up all night together in a very sketchy hotel. Each of us has our own stories to tell and we will be more than happy to tell you about our experience serving on staff.

3. Back in School- I started my school career again this year. I am going for my bachelor's in Esports Management, Production, and Performance. (Yes they have such a degree). I still love working on the administration side but why not do it for something that I love. Doing content on the side, watching my favorite content creators, and video games has created this beast known as "Lets go into esports. Let us see what is out there." I originally started as a full-time student... In which I was working full-time employee, full-time student, and full-time work in ministry. Starting this coming year, 2024, I will be moving over to become a part-time student. I felt the stress of balancing everything and school was something that I could cut down time on.

4. Trial after Trial- This will be the first time where I talk about this... but I have not been the most consistent with my walk with Christ. This year was filled with trials and I can say that I have failed most of them. There was a moment of time where I was absent from church in the spring. Am I proud of that? No. Yes, I like to place the blame on my anxiety, but majority of the blame falls on me. The motivation to attend church was no longer there for me, even though I was serving on staff for a national Baptist camp. Where do I do from here? Well, I talked to some people and really just had my rear end handed to me. People pushed me to come back because church was a place where we practice. We practice to prepare for the outside world and what is to come. 2023 for year has been the year of trials with my walk with Christ. To say the least, reflecting back on this year, I could finally see all the trials that were placed in front of me.

5. My Anxiety- I’ve only mentioned this to a few people… but I have anxiety. I have anxiety that I see my PCP and also a therapist/counselor for. My anxiety started when I was working a job where I feel like I was constantly working (even on my days off), always worried about staffing, etc. I started to not enjoy my job anymore and started to dislike my place of employment.  And a multitude of other things affected my anxiety to the point to where I needed help and needed to talk to someone about what was going on. When I go through episodes of anxiety, there will be times when I will be depressed. I would not eat and have no motivation to do anything. That’s when I found my therapist to help and then reached out to my PCP to help me with my anxiety. Yes, I take medication for my anxiety/depression. I have not been really open about my anxiety but I do make people aware that about it... and I want other people to be aware about mental health as well.

This was just a summary of my 2023 and I can talk about each in depth even more but I do not want to bore you with my writing and my terrible grammar. Thank you reading and Happy New Years!

As Always with Gratitude,

-TK