I guess its finally time for me to actually use this blog for what it really initially intended for. I need a place to finally speak about issues and hopefully find some peace in my life. I have been depressed for quite some time now and actually contemplated giving up on life. I will be the first to admit that I have had an extremely blessed and fortunate life. I was brought up in a family where I had both my parents and also a lot of contact with my mother's side of the family.Warning: this blog will contain what some may find boring and non arcade related so read on at your own risk.My late father was a Caucasian male of Scottish descent and my mother is Asian of Chinese descent. Being a child of mixed ethnicity was not so much a common thing during my youth and led to many issues for me growing up. I mentioned earlier that I grew up surrounded by my mother's side of the family because my father's side was basically racist and looked down on my parents and I. I vaguely remember attending a wedding when I was roughly 5 or 6 years old and being viewed awkwardly while my mother was pointed at and mocked on numerous occasion. Then there was a big fight between my parents and I believe my father completely separated himself from his side of the family. I honestly believe I grew up a racist due to being attacked cause of my own ethnicity. During the early 80's everywhere was predominately white in California. Things have come a long way in terms of cultural and ethnic diversity since then. Funny thing is, as a kid growing up I was attacked for being non-white, but as I grew up, I started to stand out cause I was half white. Sorry for the dragged out racial talk here, I promise I will get to the point soon.The FGC is a very special community where race really doesn't play a factor on how you are viewed, where as your skill is what shows your worth. I can honestly say that I finally matured and got over my racism issues through playing Street Fighter and being involved in competitive gaming. Through gaming I also dropped my ignorance and fear of gay people and learned to accept people no matter their race or sexual preference. This community is really a place where people can better themself and learn so many things. Not only does gaming allow you to excel in dealing with the pressures of competition, but it also puts you into this giant melting pot where you can interact with people from other cultures and backgrounds and learn so much from them.I'll leave you with a quick story on the subject since it seems appropriate. I will keep this person's name anonymous but for those in the socal scene it's pretty obvious. I still joke to this day about this with him so hopefully you guys get a chuckle out of it. Back in the day when AOL Instant Messenger was the thing, I used to chat with this dude here and there and I've known him since he was maybe 10 years old. So one night out of nowhere I get this message "yo Watson, guess who I like?" In my head im thinking.... uh... wtf? There really wasn't any girls in the scene so maybe this fool was gonna tell me something like Britney Spears or Jennifer Love Hewitt.... NOPE. He sends me this awkward ass picture of LL f*cking Cool J. Wtf? Like literally, a picture of this buff ass black dude with no shirt on and all oiled up showing off his pecs.... huge shocker out of the blue lol! But, I will never forget this moment cause this was the day I got over any issues I might have had with gay people. He basically had the courage to tell me he was gay and asked if my opinion of him changed or if it would affect our friendship. On that day I came to the realization that there was absolutely nothing wrong with that and I was just being ignorant towards something that i wasn't. I want to thank this person for opening my eyes and making me a better person. I greatly respect this person and consider him a friend to this day, and for what it's worth, he's a total beast at fighting games and easily an all time top 10 fighting game player. And no, it's not Ricki Ortiz haha, although I respect her and her achievements and as much as I hate it, she was my favorite rival during the 3rd Strike era.Thank you all again for reading. Next chapter..... trouble in paradise....