A Thank You Note

Ramblings of a grateful mind

‼️Emotion warning, proceed with caution.‼️

This was originally going to be just a note, but my emotions got a bit out of hand, so I decided to make a short post.

As we approach the new year, I’m filled with very warm feelings, especially towards my Substack. There was a time that I took a year off from Substack and had no desire to continue writing here. My motivation was almost non-existent. If you check my post history, you’ll see that there is almost a year-long break between my Game Roundup #1 in 2023 and Game Roundup #2 in 2024.

Then I tried to keep posting and keep a more consistent schedule, but real life kept getting in the way.

Then I took off another few months in between January this year and April.

Then I finally found my groove and passion for writing.

I’m so glad I returned and kept it up.

I just checked and saw that at the beginning of the year, I had 43 subscribers, which I was already grateful for. I currently stand at 225 subscribers, which is something I never expected when I first started.

I try not to check out my stats often, because it makes me feel anxious. I don’t want to become focused on numbers. I want to write what I want to write without any SEO, growth strategies, or a/b testing. Just my pure, ADHD-riddled brain, trying to put my thoughts into coherent words.¹

It has been incredibly freeing to be able to share my thoughts that would otherwise plague my always-busy mind.

Because of this, it would be incredibly amiss of me not to thank each and every one of you who subscribed to me, all 225 of you. I find it amazing that so many people want to read my perspective. It makes me think that I’m doing something right, and it urges me to continue being my authentic self.

I’m grateful to everyone here who has written anything nice about me or my Substack, who has left a comment on any of my posts, who liked a post, or even just read any of my posts. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

The little community we have curated here has become one of my highlights. It’s been very fun to be here, and to be able to discuss gaming with like-minded but also versatile people feels like a blessing. The wide variety of talent here is amazing, and Substack is doing all the amazing writers here a disservice by not raising their voices more.

Maybe we can finally get that publication category for Video Games this year, what do you say, Substack?

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This has been a very rewarding year for me, both in my personal life, and on Substack. I won’t say it hasn’t been challenging, because god knows that it was exhausting. I imagine that my life will be just as hectic in the upcoming year, but as long as it feels rewarding, I don’t mind being busy.

A photo I took at last year’s New Year’s party. Cheers!

To an even better 2026!

Mutlu yıllar! 🎉

1. If only you could see just how much I add between each edit for a post, because I’m always like “But I should talk about this too!” and then almost ruin the entire structure of my post.

My editor does not get paid enough for this (it’s me, I’m the editor and I don’t get paid at all).