Hi Daniel. This is Daniel, from Fall 2017. I miss your old ways of working hard and understanding what your goals were. I sympathize with you and understand why you ran away for a little bit, hiding.
You’ve had a lot on your plate, and had to deal with a lot of pressure with your parents telling you to find a job when you’ve had almost 0 working experience before.
This is your passion, but when it became something that you HAD to do, you didn’t want to do it.
You have connections that you have to keep up with, and you’re afraid of losing them. You have to make a demo reel, and the whole process of making a demo reel in itself is already terrifying. You need to get it approved by people.
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Hi, Daniel. This is your current self again, reporting in April. 2018
You went to GDC and made it the best year possible for everyone. You also worked really hard right up until that point and did make your demo reel. It got tons of positive feedback!
Now it’s time that we get back up from our hiatus state and get to working again.
I believe in you, old friend. We have each other.
Let’s start by writing a short blog post on my website about GDC And Reel Talk.
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Hi, Daniel. It’s good to hear from you (us?) again. Today is 6/20/2021.
A long time has passed since we last talked. You’ve been at Riot for 1 year and 8 months working as a Skin Sound Designer! I’m so proud of you for stepping up and going through what I remember as one of the most difficult and nerve wrecking things of interviewing at your dream job. As your day to day job, you helped ship 20 skins and get to see players enjoying the most played video game in the world with YOUR sounds in it. You probably didn’t think something like this could happen 3 years ago, did you? :)
You met so many wonderful coworkers who you’ve built relationships with, and even went through a relationship (& a breakup as well.) And now you’re getting serious about improving yourself and learning what it means to be a man. You’ve grown a lot. I want you to know that you’re not alone - if it gets lonely, I want you to understand that everyone goes through these phases and feel alone as well.
Be the person to reach out to others and make them not lonely. Help people out and become a good person.
Keep going to the gym every day, and make sure to be mindful. Don’t lose focus by binge watching random Youtube videos! I hope that you’ll have achieved your goals of creating consistency in your workout routines and becoming more mindful & therefore living a happier and fulfilled life.
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Hey Daniel! This is yourself again, from Dec 7, 2022.
Reading my past letters to myself makes me realize just how young and excited we used to be about everything in life. I guess this is what it means to grow up and mature, right? But let’s not lose that silliness that we have, and the reason why people like to gravitate toward us. Knowing when to have fun, and when to make others laugh. That’s what makes you, you.
You’ve been at Riot for a little over 3 years now. You’ve helped a lot of people outside of Riot by mentoring them, and now you’re thinking about what better ways are there to help people in a more efficient manner. Your time is starting to noticeably become less and less available for everyone - and you are recognizing the need to selfishly cancel personal hang outs sometimes, for the sake of your own growth.
The way you carry yourself, speak, and think has changed to the core. You are now excited about the possibility of life and the importance of relationships more than anything else. League of Legends is still your main job, but you now look forward to the end of the day & week, to hang out with people you care about, or quietly enjoy reading a book.
Speaking of reading - you started writing a book, and you have am ambitious goal. Your father always wanted you to write a book - and now you’re working on one. Dedicating 2 hours to reading and writing each day is not an easy task, but whenever you put your mind to it, you never give up. Just look at how you’ve been going to the gym for 220 days in a row now. Keep it up - you look great!
I want to say one more thing before I go. Since the topic of relationships is probably one of the most prominent one that pops up in our brain nowadays - For the future Daniel who’ll be reading this in another year or so - I hope that you’ll have found someone who truly loves and cares for you by the time you’re reading this. If you did - I hope that she is kind, beautiful, smart, caring and loving to you every day. If you haven’t found someone like that by that time, I pray that at least the people that you’ve met and spent time with will have helped you grow. Don’t forget that there is someone out there waiting for you to show up one day. Keep bettering yourself until your time comes. We’re in this together. :)