Good Things Do Happen to Good People

Man, today has been a good day for feeling good vicariously. I just found out that friendly neighborhood Vampire: The Requiem game dev and frequent college guest Justin Achille has been promoted over at White Wolf, and newly-married college buddy and Feng Shui developer Will Hindmarch has been taken over as developer for Vampire. I'm thrilled for both these guys, as they deserve nothing less. Will will certainly fill Justin's large shoes admirably and move Vampire's freshly-kickstarted world forward in new and intriguing directions. Congratulate them over at their blogs, if you have a moment.

It's great to feel this sort of excitement for other people, to see friends travel down new paths in their lives and become truly "adult." Friends are getting married, having babies, getting careers, starting new projects...it's really good to see after the utter shit that 2003 and a good portion of 2004 have turned out to be for almost everyone I know.

My best friend just started medical school to become a physical therapist, and got to work the Chicago Marathon as a triage worker. He spent 6 hours hauling runners who sprinted, stumbled, or collapsed across the finish line to a tent, giving them water, massages and comfort as they rose and plunged throught the heights and depths of human emotions. He said to me, "It was that day that I knew that I have chosen the right path for myself. My eyes till well up with tears when I think about those people, even 3 weeks later." And that thrill was so contageous -- to know that friends are finally getting to that age where they can live their dreams, where the hard work and economic troubles and romantic disasters are finally paying off -- that I was drunk from it, bursting with joy. I have a hope that maybe things will soon turn around for me, but if they don't, I'm just as happy to watch my friends celebrate the victories of their lives.