Hi everyone,

My name is Kevin, and I'm a gamer. So much in fact that it's pretty much the only thing I keep myself busy with in my spare time (don't get me wrong, I have a life, lots of friends, a girlfriend and to top it all, I'm not grossly obese!). It is my dream to later make it in the gaming industrie, wether it's journalism or developement. I'm 20 years old, and I'm studying Communication and multi-media design. I see it as my step up to eventaully finding my gap into the industrie. I'm about te complete a semester called GAME. This has been the happiest period of my life so far. This is where the purpose of the message becomes clear.
This is a thank you, to all of you guys for actively changing my life! Two and a half years I decided I should go into studying Englisch as a high school teacher. I kept trying to convince myself I actually liked it. After about four months into that I discovered the power of podcasts and 1UP Yours. This was followed by the 1UP show shortly thereafter. I saw how much everyone enjoyed doing what they were doing, envy took over and I wondered wther the path I chose actually was the right one. This led to me, quitting with what I was doing and re-evalluating my life. After that I found Communication and Multi-Media design. I couldn't be more happy and I feel like I have a shot at realizing my dream. 1UP yours and show became the pinnacle of every week for me. That made me very sad to find out 1UP got sold.
Thankfully everyone cam through, Although Listen Up ended recently, David Ellis is still making shows that I really enjoy. Hopefully Garnet Lee will also be back in the future with his own show. And Area 5 formed. Co-op is the half an hour of me-time a get weekly, and (I'm sure you get this all the time) I just really appreciate what all of you do on a daily basis for the global gaming community.
I may not have the money to donate right now, but I hope it means something to all of you when I say, thank you, for making me able to accept myself as a gamer, and for giving me the will to chase those dreams.
If anyone feels like playing a game at some time, you can find me online on pc, ps3 and xbox und the gamertag: LegacyNL. Allways up for a good filosophical discussion about games in particular or the industry itself. I also included my email adres.

Hope that wasn't to much of a mindf**k for you guys, I just wanted to express my gratitude.

Kevin Shuttleworth
Netherlands