Happy Thanksgiving To All

Happy Thanksgiving to you. Today I'm going to do something I tend to steer away from more often than not; I'm going to get personal and tell you what I am thankful for. You've been warned.

I started this website out of some extremely trying personal circumstances. At the beginning of the year, my professional life was derailed due to state budget cuts. There were also some very emotionally challenging things took place in my personal life that saw the loss of friends and family. Essentially the year 2011 started off poorly for me and I needed something to focus on.

From many years ago. A reminder of growth.
I'm on the left ;)

It was through those deep challenges that my closest friends urged me to pursue my life's dream of being a writer. They knew that I'd had a goal of creating a website and offering my thoughts on soccer.  My goal was to combine my knowledge of the league and give insight in a professional manner. From their encouragement and my personal challenges, MLS Reserves was born.

Since then, I've had to opportunity to interview some fantastic professional athletes and coaches. I've spent time with wonderful people and had the guidance of established, well respected writers. For someone who is pursuing a career and has a goal of one day writing about soccer in a full, professional capacity, this is invaluable.

Fantastic people have offered their advice along the way and I am eternally grateful. Sometimes people do not realize how much their words of encouragement, emails out of the blue, retweets and Facebook messages mean. I'd love to list all the names of people who have helped me along the way, but the list is long and I'm terrified I'd forget someone that is very deserving of thanks.

This is not only from professionals, it also comes from you, the readers. If you did not share the site with others, it'd be pointless. Thank you to all of you for reading, commenting, tweeting and emailing me. Above all else, thank you for sharing and helping me grow the site. It means more than you know.

Happy Thanksgiving,

-Luke