It’s been a while.
In fact, it’s been what feels like forever. My last post was in July of last year, reviewing Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest from Stonemaier Games. Since then, a lot has happened in my personal life that has kept me from reviewing games and being an active member in the board game community. I will talk about these a little in the State of the Immersion, so let’s get on with it.
The Future of Board Game Immersion
While the State of the Immersion (which should really be published in December/January) is for a recap of the year, I want to start with my plans for the future of this website and my reviews. Now that things have settled a bit, I am happy to report that I plan to start back up on reviews! As I get started (again), I will be re-publishing a number of reviews that I had previously reviewed on a former outlet, which reviews are unfortunately no longer available online. That means the reviews will be of older games (which I still love talking about!), and the pictures won’t be as detailed as they usually are. That said, I will be going through and updating my old reviews with new thoughts where appropriate, so that everything is as up-to-date as possible. The images, however, will remain as they were when first reviewed.
What’s Kept Me Away
There have been two major events in my personal life that have kept me away from reviewing and writing. I’ve missed it, certainly, but the replacements have been for the best reasons.
First, we welcomed our fourth child into the world in August, 2022! While my wife and I don’t share personal information about our children online, I am happy to report that our little dude is now six months old and as cute as ever! As you might imagine, having three kids running around the house can be busy, and adding a fourth—a newborn, no less—makes it even more so. But with him being older now (and a bit less needy), things are (a bit) easier.
Second is my work status. I started teaching middle school English halfway through the school year in 2021. At the end of that school year (May 2022), I had to find a new job since the school I was at had to let seven teachers go due to the number of students entering the school. Fortunately, I found an excellent position at a high school nearby. As of the 2022-2023 school year, I am teaching 9th- and 10th-grade English. Teaching at the high school level is where I wanted to end up anyway, so this was an amazing opportunity! It’s been incredibly busy as I’ve learned the ropes at a new school, gone through trainings and meetings galore, and developed unit and lesson plans mostly from scratch. To add to that crazy, I became a co-coach for the school’s academic team. I have never done anything in this realm before (I didn’t even know what academic team was until I started teaching middle school), but it’s been a blast. With practices, matches, and now us going to regionals (woot!), it’s certainly kept me busy. With about four months left of the school year, however, I think I’m finally at a place where I’m not working on lesson plans every night after the kids are in bed.
Things That Were, Things That Are, and Some Things…
With me stopping in July last year, I was only able to publish eight reviews (plus a few articles). With it already being February, I’m a little behind my usual, but I feel it safe to say that I should be able to publish at least one review a month, likely more. Eventually, I’d love to have something go out at least once a week, but as the sole operator of this site, that’s a little much for now.
Thank You
It’s been both fun and challenging starting and operating Board Game Immersion on my own. I’m excited to be back in action, but without readers and followers, Board Game Immersion wouldn’t exist, and wouldn’t be an option for me to come back to. So thank you for being here. Plethora (it means a lot).
This concludes the State of the Immersion 2023. Stay tuned for more content soon!
