Well hell y’all. I’m writing again.

It’s been a hot second since I’ve been able to write. A concussion, undisclosed trauma and a whole lotta stress just made it near impossible for me to get the words to come back.

But here I am, not ya boi, back at it again, wishing I had a Krispy Kreme.

We’re about to enter a whole new decade with a lot of potential looming on the horizon. So I figured the best thing to try right now is looking back on some of the biggest events in my life of the last decade.

This is in no particular order because my brain is still trying to heal from the last three years. So with that, let’s start!

• Pierogi Meatball

Y’all didn’t think I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to talk about my cat did you?

But if you didn’t know, we adopted this strange little white cat on New Year’s Eve in 2017. Her original name was Snowflake, which we believed was a very basic white cat name. Her name came from my love potatoes and my girlfriend’s love of cheese as well as our desire for a gender neutral name. Pierogi was the best solution we could come up with, as well as the potential beginning of us naming our future pets based on pastas.

I love this strange kitty immensely. When we adopted her, she had a shaved back leg because it was broken (I’m still not entirely sure exactly how it was broken.) We fell in love with her immediately even though we weren’t actually looking to adopt at that moment. Soon after meeting her, we were ringing in the new year with an anxious new addition to our lives (Shout out to Rob for being the MVP so we could bring her home!)

Pierogi might be the strangest cat I’ve ever met. She grumbles like a human, specifically me when I’m cranky. She chirps more often than she meows. She is the most photogenic cat I’ve ever encountered. She is one of the most mediocre hunters I’ve ever met. She has so much anxiety. Of course there’s the whole thing about her sticking out her back leg too.

Her leg has since healed, but I believe that since her injury happened at such a young age (8ish months) she just got so used to sticking her leg out that she’ll unintentionally still do it.

But as strange as she is, I’ve never met a cat so loving and connected to more than one person before in my life.

She loves both of us immensely. I cannot believe how quickly she showed that when we first got her. A few years ago, I wasn’t in the best mental shape, even before the concussion. When I would have panic attacks, it could get pretty bad. In the first few days, she would come over and find me. (It’s the reason she can partially do one trick, which is to boop her nose to your finger when you say “Touch.”) In the midst of a bad panic attack, she can do that little trick and it helps ground me.

People who knew me before I met the love of my life, are aware that I generally have issues going to bed. I would never go to sleep, I’d work myself haggard and just not having a sleeping schedule. All of that really changed with this little fur ball.

Pierogi forces my girlfriend to play with her at every opportunity she can get. For me though? It’s almost always time for bed. I’ll come home from work and she’ll greet me with a chirp. After getting more settled in, she follows me to the bedroom and launches herself onto the bed and starts making biscuits on the blankets next to me. Once we’re both comfortable under blankets, suddenly I find myself asleep and the big spoon to a cat.

It’s just really fascinating to me to see a cat so in tune with what we need. She knows I love to play with her, but just having companionship and a small thing called sleep is much more important to my needs I suppose.

It seems a little silly, but she has taught me a lot. Love truly is a complex language that you can share with others in so many different ways. Being there for people, even in the littlest of ways, can go a long way. You don’t need all the words, you just need to be the best person you can be.

I’m hoping to take this loving mentality into the next decade and beyond. This world is a harsh place and it could really use a little bit more love. Love is worth it. Being a good person to others is worth it. As often as my weird fur child sticks out her leggy, I will always be trying to be a loving, considerate person.