Happy birthday, Jatill! I've been too busy to check into the forums for weeks (and I feel terrible about bailing at the end of April's tournament). I was starting to think that dedicating time to Magic was only possible for young whippersnappers who hadn't hit "real" life yet. It gives me hope to know that 27 is on the young side for this community.
I started playing Magic in 6th grade, which was just before Alliances came out. Homelands boosters were only $1, so I snapped up as many as I could with my paper route money. As I'm sure many here can relate to, I wasn't exactly the belle of the ball during my young teenage years, and I only had a couple of friends to play Magic with. Fortunately, this thing called
Arena started up at my local card shop and I got to regularly play with a group of people, mostly in their 30s-40s. It was a breath of fresh air to have a venue where a mature little guy could interact in a fun and respectful way with others of whatever age. As my social life improved over the years, I had less and less "spare" time to play Magic, but I still think it is the best game I've ever played, and I hope to still be playing when I'm 60.
Thank you, old man (and all the other geezers who have given so much to this community of Magic players). Happy birthday.