In honor of Gary Gygax, or how Dungeons and Dragons changed my life

I have an early memory of getting my first Dungeons and Dragons game. It was a second edition box which contained everything you needed to play the game, included a scenario. I remember that the box looked so cool and I couldn't wait to play it. However I had no idea what I was getting into.
At that time I didn't have a group of friends who would play this strange game with me so I had to resort to getting my family to play with me. I remember being disappointed when I wasn't able to convince them to play.
Eventually I managed to get my father and my younger brother to play with me. I functioned as the DM and I soon entered the world of campaign building. The Dungeon Master's guide brought me to a strange new world of creativity. However it was my dad who introduced me into real storytelling when he told me that my games were episodic. It took me a while to understand what he meant but it opened my eyes to something new.

Years later toward the end of middle school I finally got a group of friends who were also interested in D&D. We would go over to each other's house and play strange games full of plot holes. I usually functioned as the Dungeon Master, however I always have the desire to be one of the players. I kept the friends I made through D&D and even now that I am in college they are some of my closest friends.

When I learned that Gary Gygax had died I began to think about how Dungeons and Dragons has changed me. I can only thank him for all the adventures I have gone on and the ones I will go on in in the future. Thank you Gary Gygax, we will miss you.