I started playing Destiny back during the beta in my late teens, I recall how excited I was as a console gamer to see the makers of Halo take an attempt at making an MMO shooter. I remember running through the content available, doing every little thing I could to hit the level cap. 8 I think it was? Running every Iron Banner instance I could to get the Wolf cloak, running around with my Galahad and feeling how much potential the game really had once I made it into the Crucible. I never could have imagined the journey ahead of me. Eventually I completed all the content I could in the game solo, so I started trying to connect with other players. This was still a new genre to me, so I was trying to do my best not to insert myself into activities I wasn't ready for and being a detriment to my team (my girlfriend at the time was a WoW savant, so I had a rough idea of how to behave thanks to her). I ran a few nightfall, but eventually I started hearing about the Vault of Glass. I was intimidated, so I didn't jump in right away. I farmed a bit more and eventually, I tried joining a group on Bnet that was looking for a 6th. They asked me if I had raided before, or knew anything about the Raid, and I was honest: I knew absolutely nothing, I've never tried before, but I'm a quick learner and I'll do whatever they tell me. They asked what kind of gear I have, if I have any exotics, and I tell them what I've got. Friends, I had straight up -blam!-. Maybe a Lucky Raspberry, Young Ahamkara's Spine, and a Suros Regime at best from static and random drops. I missed the ghorn bus. I knew nothing about meta, or BiS. I was out there chasing the Crest of Alpha Lupi as a goal cause fashion. All the same, they offered to teach me and dragged me along. That's where it all really began. They were patient, kind, helpful, every bit as excited as I was about every drop I got, good or bad. We made it through with a few hiccups and when we finally got that first Atheon kill it was a fantastic moment. It turned out that they were a five stack from the same clan and they offered to let me join up. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity and they taught me everything about the game. How to start exotics quests, how Nightfall multipliers work. Jerk (I wish I could remember his full gamertag, but it was a lifetime ago) was practically my Hunter Sherpa. He helped me learn the Crucible and become a menace as a fellow day 1 Hunter main. We made new Hunter alts together, since we hardly played any other class, and powerleveled through the entire campaign together so we could farm raid armor for our mains twice per week. Thanks to him, I knew everything about my class like the back of my hand, and I was carrying Crucible matches solo with The Last Word like a Shin Malphur level threat. Eventually The Dark Below came out and we jumped into Crota's End Blind. For its time, it was oppressive, challenging, and spectacular. By this time I had become a masterful invis leaning Arc Strider, using the invisibility to help us survive and progress on Lamps and the final bridge formation. If anything went wrong, I would just keep moving forward and be the encounter safety net. Eventually we make it to Crota and spend attempt after attempt trying to figure out how to drop him, with myself slowly figuring out the optimal invis timing to reach Crota from the half-steps on his side of the arena, to a safe exit post dps phase. After enough practice attempts, we finally got our Blind completion. No Day one though unfortunately. We wanted the pride of completing it blind and none of us had lives that would accomodate a raid race. After that, we ran content for as long as it kept our attention. We had become the best raid team in our clan, frequently substituting one or two of ourselves into the other teams to help out as needed. Whether it was Strikes, Nightfalls, Raids, or the Crucible, at least one of our original 6 man VoG team was in tow running content with me, and vice versa. After awhile, I ended up taking an extended break from the game, came back for The Taken King, but the clan had disbanded. Some friends had changed names, gone inactive, etc. It marked the end of a brief era, but it make me an outstanding player and that lightning in a bottle has kept me playing this long. I never found another clan after that, I simply became an LFG-solo player for all content going forward, trying to teach people as they taught me. I sit here now with my Timelost Fatebringer, reflecting on those times as Destiny may be coming to a close. I'd like to pay tribute to them in the same way I found them: posting on Bnet. Jerk, Asteroid, Old Man, Roman, thank you for showing me what gaming could be. I hope you found your happiness in life. Sincerely, your Young Wolf, -Irishdude117.