The value of XMarks The Scot

[Rob Wright]

As I finish up the last of my mini-vacation after finishing my latest semester of schooling (4.0 for the semester!) and just before heading off to work tonight as the summer movie season kicks off, I've been sitting back enjoying pots of Jasmine White and reflecting on the last five years of my life and how change has come good and bad in my life and the changes I've seen seen here on XMarks.

Five years ago when I first joined ( #99!), I remember the joy at discovering a place I could go and learn more about kilts. I was running a little restaurant, working like a fiend and writing murder mysteries and acting in melodramas while I did my best to impede my liver in its ambitions to control my internal organs.

A couple of years go by, the forum grows and expands as does my kilt collection. 2006 rolls around and I'm feeling the effects of massive burnout related to my work and the owner of the place I ran brought his son in to take over and I could see reality staring me in the face. I had to leave. I started out heading up to Oregon and staying with my brother, had several job interviews lined up, was one of three finalists for two of them and when I was up there everything I had been ignoring finally caught up with me. Health issues came to the fore, my years of abuse of various meds (better living through chemistry) came a knocking as well as my depression( due to a chemical imbalance in my body) kicked in with a ferocity I hadn't experienced since I first was diagnosed.

I dropped everything, pulled out of the final interviews, ended my culinary career for good, and after a lot of frustrating phone calls, took up my parents on their invitation to stay with them and go back to school. This was probably the hardest thing for me to do because I've had a rocky relationship with my family for years, from my father unable to grasp the inherited nature of my depression (from his side of the family) to his issues with kilts (his mom is a Douglas ) as well as religious and political disagreements I ended back in New Mexico a half hour from where I had started from and frustrated as hell.

January 2007 and I am commuting to Las Cruces having been readmitted to New Mexico State University pursuing a Secondary Education: Language Arts degree. I walked in 1999 with an Associates of Arts and the only memory I have of that ceremony was not falling off the stage how times have change. I've started to respond to my treatment for depression, thank goddess for my doctor, who has always gone above and beyond when I've had to do my treatments, I've cut back to two drinks a week, my weight is still dropping and to my surprise, my fellow students all believe I've been attending school all along and am not a just returning after years out in the real world.

Now, I'm one year from graduating, I'm writing again, with plans to finish and submit a story at the end of the summer as well as finishing my current story and write a first draft of a screenplay, I'll try and fit a little bit of work in there somewhere as well as a summer session of school.

Through all of this, the support of good people, my girls who use to work for me and now attend school with me! O_O, some of my family, friends from my old stomping grounds, and people I met here on XMarks such as, Glen (GMan), Eunice, David(Freelander), P1M, Mike1, Todd, Hamish, and others (Panache, Dee, McMurdo, Jock, Puffer, ForresterModern, Alan H, etc ) who have made this place a meeting grounds over the years.

We may share an interest in the kilt but in the end it is the people that make this place what it is and no matter what labels we or others apply to our selves, it is what we as people bring to the table that makes this such an enjoyable place. (Yes, even Grant )

Rob :ootd:

Who needs to stop procrastinating and finish two more pages before he heads off to work

[thescot]

Well said, Rob. I enjoyed the reflection an concur wholeheartedly with your sentiments.

[dfmacliam]

The road of life is an interesting journey, with all it's bends and twists, we oft times arrive where we started so many years ago. While we travel we meet those who have an effect on our lives, some good some not so good, and we trudge on.... We realize sometimes, what we have been seeking was within us all along. We gain good friends, we learn the value of ourselfs, and we find peace. We may spend a lifetime looking for pure beauty, and find it in a little ones eyes, in a mountain sunrise, or a beach front sunset.

It's good we find other who have similar interests as ourselves, I, myself, am glad I found this forum. I have met others who have a similar background as myself, I found those who teach me a history, I never knew. I meet brothers on here who are friends with people I know, not part of the kilted lifestyle(yet, hehehe). Life is really not so bad... And XMarks just inhances it a bit.

Rob, thanks for sharing your story, it makes my heart smile, thinking of the good people I met here.. People who share the same path of life I am travelling.. We thought we travelled alone, and realize we have had company all along... Just never looked in the right place...

[raibeart_dubh]

What a truly great post, both for being so candid about your personal life and for your assessment of XMarks.

This is the finest, most polite forum I have ever been a part of. I know we have differences but somehow we all find a way to agree to disagree and be supportive of each other. Let's keep it up!

[Panache]

Rob,

I'm glad you seem to be on the right path.

XMTS is certainly a very unique and positive community. In my time here I have had the pleasure of making a lot of friendships that span the globe.

It seems to grow along with its members and just keeps getting better

Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Cheers

Jamie

[ccga3359]

I'm sure that we all are better for knowing you and are glad that you've straightened out and not checked out. not on;y that but you are now following your dream, something many of us do not have the courage to do. I for one take pride that, I alone, give you much fodder for your writing. Whom do you see to play me, the dashing hero type, in your screen play?

[bear]

Writing is an addiction for those afflicted. Writing Science Fiction is the crack cocaine of creative writing.
Follow your dreams and walk over all who stand in your path, for there will be many. Learn to lock the door and refuse to answer for any man who isn't bringing money, booze, or a hot meal. And keep it locked for any women who want to stay the night, too!
I'm proud of you, Rob. Well done!

[KFCarter]

Thanks for sharing your story, Rob. There are no straight lines in nature or in our lives. It's all grist for the mill for a writer. Best of luck to you with your new trajectory; it sounds like you have a good sense of where you're headed.
And best of luck with wrestling with the writing gods!

:ootd:

[morrison]

May a path of learning steer you arightly, your mornings be peacable & slumber refreshing. May the sun stop short of singeing your neck and the moon shine any place it wants. Let every friend know it in no uncertain terms and all adversaries stand down lest they be taught. When you proceed tarry not and as you recline it's the finest spot.
May a breeze cool between your knees and should your hem find verticle may none abridge an article.

Now my dear friend,
.
.
ahhh tennn . . . . . HUT
.
.
Kilt . . . ON
.
.
Forwaaard . . Life.

[TNKiltedWolf]

Rob,
Thank you for sharing with us about your life, and your journey. Xmarks is a great place for learning about kilts, and what makes it all the more special is the people that comprise it. It is good to hear of your path thus far and congrats on finishing another semester!

Best regards and well wishes,
Aaron