Thanks for my life, KSP

[Djsnowboy267]

I've wanted to post this thank you for a while, but I figured with the release of 1.0 I should finally get around to it as a way to celebrate KSP becoming a full game now! Congrats and thanks to all you guys at Squad!

Anyways, this is a bit of a story about how KSP has influenced my life and my future. I've always been a pretty smart kid and was quite interested in space as a kid (as many young children are) but it wasn't really a big passion of mine. Either way, for a lot of my life so far I never knew what I wanted to do. Skip forward to 2012, and I'm just an average kid playing games on PC. However, I was going through some hard times. My dad and grandfather had just passed away in the fall of 2011, and I didn't know what to do with myself. I had some pretty disturbing thoughts about both myself and others. One day, I see Robbaz upload a video on YouTube about KSP. I thought it looked kind of cool, so I downloaded the demo, which was in .13 at the time, and played for a bit. I never really caught on and stopped playing after a while. Then, around December of that year, .18 is released. I soon start to see a few videos about it and I become pretty interested in KSP again. I figured that I enjoyed the demo enough, and the full version looks really fun (keep in mind this is before the demo version was updated to .18) so I decided to buy the game. At this time, I'm around 13 years old and in 8th grade, still not knowing what to do with my life.

Here is where everything changes. I really start to enjoy KSP, even though I don't understand the real science behind any of it at the time. I play more, and more, and more, and I fall in love with the game. By early 2013, I am watching videos and actually learning about the general science about rockets, especially the physics. I even get a few friends to start playing the game. Anyways, I finally drag myself out of this deep pit and start doing something worthwhile. KSP re-ignited my love for science and space I had as a kid. By Summer, I've already decided I want to be something regarding physics, maybe a theoretical physicist or an astrophysicist. KSP is moving forward in development, and so am I. Soon, I start my freshman year in high school, and I find something hidden in my closet, and old telescope my father bought for me as a kid. I dust it off and bring it outside, but it doesn't work! I will later find out that I needed an eyepiece (duh) but at the time, I decide I want to try and look at the stars, which I very rarely got to do as a kid. So I go out to the store and buy a pair of 10x50mm binoculars, which might not seem like much but they were enough to get me started. I sat out on my front steps every night that fall, opened up my iPad, and tried to figure out what I would find tonight. Some more time passes on, and I buy a Celestron Nexstar 4se telescope in February 2014. Now, rather than being obsessed with rocketry and physics, I am obsessed with astronomy and space. Now my entire life I have had an interest in aviation as well, and always though being a pilot would be pretty cool. Soon, I realize I can actually started taking flying lessons within 1-2 years. I have a new direction to my life.

Today, I am a member of my local astronomical society, a local aeroclub, and I am planning on joining an aviation chapter and Civil Air Patrol. I am working through my flight ground school and will be flying this summer. I've used my telescope to see galaxies I've never thought I would see. I have a plan set as a future air force pilot and astronomer. Would I have made it to this point without the influence of KSP? Maybe, but I very much doubt it.

So I want to give a HUGE thank you to everybody who is or has worked at Squad. KSP is still one of my favorite games and no matter what anybody says, KSP is a great influence on lots of people, and I hope to see both content and community continue to expand. Speaking of which, you guys on the forum are all great, thank you. I also want to thank Robbaz for getting me started, and Scott Manley as well for his help in teaching me the ways of KSP. Finally, Danny2462 deserves a bit of recognition for helping me find more... fun ways to play KSP.

P.S. Don't tell Jeb, but I still don't have any plans for that rescue mission either, but I'm sure he can figure it out.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Djsnowboy267

[Voidryder]

Great story. Amazing how the dream of one person (HarvesteR's) can aspire another to dream and achieve. Now hold onto that desire/dream. Who knows, maybe you'll take the first step upon Europa. See ya in The Black.