A Thank You to This Community

[lilbud]

(This’ll come off sappy, but I don’t care)

By the time most of y’all end up reading this, I’ll be walking across my school’s football field to
receive my HS Diploma.

Most of the time, when you see a post with a title like this, this isn’t what you expect. Usually,
these posts are written by parents, thanking this community for wanting to share a beloved
childhood NES game with their kids. Or a guy happy to reconnect with his younger relatives
through gaming.

This isn’t one of those posts.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to this community, but first, a little backstory.

The year is 2014, my 8th grade year of Middle School. I was all set to go to a special tech HS to study engineering. I wanted to take after my older cousin, who at the time, was suspended from a hundred foot tall windmill somewhere in Kansas. That is what I wanted to do with my life. Design and build large projects that would better people’s lives (this is the sappy part I was talking about.) But all that changed around Christmas. I had received, after much pestering and begging, a Raspberry Pi starter kit. A Pi B+ and all the necessary accessories to get going on my way. This was around the time that I believe every gaming journalism site from here to Timbuktu started touting the wonders of building your own Retropie Gaming System. Ya know, to relive your childhood and and all that.

This community is the reason I fell in love in retro gaming

I wouldn’t have found a passion for Graphic Design if it weren’t for this community warmly accepting every new theme I made.

Getting involved with this community led me to a hobby of coding and programming.

Now, because of what hobbies and loves I found through this community, I am going to college to pursue a Computer Science degree.

I would like to personally thank this community, I felt that this was necessary. Because as I came to looking back as I got closer to graduation, I realized that I wouldn’t be on this path if it weren’t for getting that Pi 5 years ago and discovering this community and all that came with it.

Thank you all,

Brian (lilbud)

[hooperre]

Congrats!!!

[quicksilver]

Congrats! Best of luck to you in college. Its an end of an era for you but also the beginning of a new one. Savor every minute of it!

[markyh444]

Good luck dude

[lilbud]

I sent this to a friend while sitting here waiting to start. Thought it summed up my thoughts now.

Now I'm out here on this road, alone on this road tonight
Close my eyes and feel so many friends around me in the early evening light
And the miles we have come and the battles won and lost
Are just so many roads traveled, so many rivers crossed
And I ask God for the strength and faith in one another
'Cause it's a good night for a ride 'cross this river to the other side, my blood brothers

• Blood Brothers ~ Bruce Springsteen

[BJRetro]

@lilbud enjoy the celebrations and college!! So amazing you were in high school doing all this stuff for retropie. You’ve got a bright future. Party ....just not too hard...and keep your eye on the prize.

[pjft]

@lilbud I haven’t been to the forums so often these days, but what a great time to have dropped by and read these news. Congratulations on your diploma, and it’s great to have had the chance and pleasure of seeing your contributions for the community.

Do keep us posted and I hope you keep dropping by and enjoying this hobby on your spare time :)

[grant2258]

congrats my good man always nice to see something positive

[A Former User]

Congrats!

[simpleethat]

Congratulations and best of luck!

[PokeEngineer]

@lilbud

Congrats man. Thanks for sticking with us for all of this time, and for being an inspiration to so many people, including me.

[Swampy]

Also a big THANK YOU from me!

[A Former User]

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