A Very Bloggy Thanksgiving

When I was an undergraduate, my friends and I had a Thanksgiving tradition.  Every year, the college’s cafeteria sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner for students who elected to stay on campus during the holiday.  It was a family-style affair, with each table getting bowls full of all the traditional trimmings, complete with a whole turkey on every single table.  This was a whole, uncarved turkey, which meant that some inexperienced college student at each table (always me at my table) had to carve it herself.  It’s generous to say that my carving skills are a disaster.

After the first year of this, we were hooked.  Each subsequent year, a large group of us decided to stay at the college over the Thanksgiving weekend specifically so that we could go to the dinner together.  Our tradition arose from that first year when someone at the table suggested that we do the usual Thanksgiving thing and go around the table, each person standing up and saying what she was thankful for.  But then, we came up with a new idea (we were English majors, we were crafty).  Instead of saying what we were thankful for, we would say why we were thankful for each person at the table.  What followed was a wonderful, sometimes tearful (other times hysterical) tradition that we continued on until our graduation.

Today, I’m going to revive that tradition.  Rather than talking about just one person I’m thankful for in the WoW blogosphere, I’d like to go around my proverbial table of bloggers to say a huge “thank you” to some truly amazing people, and I’ve decided to give them some shiny new titles  as a Thanksgiving gift.

To Squelchy, the Personality

There’s no doubt in my mind that a big reason why I got into blogging in the first place was my friend and guildmate, Squelchy.  I knew of his blog before I joined our guild, and I was amazed that someone from our tiny server had a big scary thing like a blog – let alone a blog that I had seen linked to in some pretty well-known places.  Squelchy’s courage to write made blogging feel accessible to me, and he inspired me to try to make my writing as accessible as possible.  Though he recently retired from both WoW and blogging  (he has returned, yay!), Squelchy used to write a blog about rogues.  I know absolutely nothing about rogues, and yet his blog was always totally coherent and very interesting to me.  He managed to talk about his class in a way that would still be meaningful to people who had never played that class.  More importantly, every word that Squelchy wrote was infused with his own clever personality.  Even posts about rogue theorycrafting had that special Squelchy tone to them.  Thank you, Squelchy, for giving me the courage to start this blog and for showing me how to write about my class with accessibility and style.

To Keeva, the Kindly Druid

Though real life has spirited her away from us in recent months, Keeva remains one of the most important and influential names in the druid community.  Keeva’s Tree Bark Jacket was the single most important resource I used when I was learning how to heal on my druid for the first time.  She is always so warm and approachable when druids ask her questions on her blog, and the first time I saw her comment here I think I nearly passed out from excitement.  Thank you, Keeva, for your kindness and for all the help you’ve given young druids.

To Beruthiel, the Heroic

Beruthiel was one of the first bloggers in the WoW community who made me feel like I was becoming a part of that community.  She interviewed me for the Twisted Nether Welcome Wagon a few months after I created my blog, and I truly felt that she ushered me into the WoW blogosphere.  Beyond this, Beru’s inspirational post about her real-life relationship that grew from a WoW friendship took an amazing amount of guts to write and publish, and it helped me to feel more comfortable speaking out about the origins of my own relationship.  Thank you, Beru, for welcoming me to the blogosphere, for being strong enough to write about what matters to you, and for being my infallible source for all the information I need about healing heroic raids.

To Johnnie and Hugh, the Ralliers

Make no mistake, I would not be writing this post right now if it weren’t for Johnnie at MMO Melting Pot.  Very likely, you wouldn’t be reading this post if not for Hugh.  Late in the summer, I basically decided I didn’t feel like writing this blog anymore.  After a month or two with no new posts, I got an email from Johnnie.  It was simply a kind reminder that the editors of the Pot read my blog and that they were looking forward to seeing future posts.  It was the kick that I needed to get me writing again.  Shortly thereafter, Hugh linked a few of my posts on the Pot, including an extremely nice write-up when I wondered What Makes a Good Raid?  Thank you, Johnnie and Hugh, for giving me the push that I needed exactly when I needed it.  Your encouragement has meant so much to me.

So thank you, to each and every one of you amazing bloggers, and to the many more amazing bloggers who I’m lucky enough to get to interact with every single day on Twitter and through their own blogs.  Thank you for taking the time to be kind and welcoming while also being extremely skilled and knowledgeable players.  I hope each of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving.