Sometimes in life, there are responsibilities that need filling. Priorities that must be addressed. This short piece is my thank you to the reader, my apology for not being better and an explanation of the responsibilities and priorities that have me here.

First, a thank you – today marks one year since I re-joined Twitter in an effort to share my writing on the Miami Dolphins. This time a year ago, I had no readers. I had nobody following my account.

I wrote a story on Patrick Paul because I thought the negative noise on him was wrong.

Despite having built up a following when I was a media relations director for major university football programs and two major bowl games, I dumped my old social account because I was sick of what it was producing for me. I was tired of the news. So this new account (@aquacoralrep) has been designed pretty much for football only.

(I know this is boring, please stay with me).

Without any promotion or trading of follows, my account has grown to over 1,000 followers. I have been able to write and share and the feedback I have gotten has rarely been negative.

So THANK YOU all. Now I want to explain a few things.

BIG DOLPHINS DRAFT GUIDE WITH NO FOLLOW UP?

So for those who have wondered how I have the time to watch over 300 draft prospects and write on over 200 of them, all with the Miami Dolphins in mind.

The answer is this – after decades of working in college football, I had to quit and the reason is my daughter, Avery, who has the rare genetic disorders Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and Ring 22 Chromosome Syndrome.  

At the end of 2018, after over 10 years at the Citrus Bowl, it became clear that being the caretaker for a young girl who was in diapers, could not communicate and needed full-time attention did not jive with an events-based profession like college football. Since that time, I have been at home as a full-time caretaker.

It is what has allowed me to do work I enjoy on things like the draft and to come up with what I did for a draft guide. But now 15 years old, 5-4 and over 100 pounds, Avery sometimes has challenges that make doing things I want to do – like write a follow-up on the Dolphins draft – sometimes impossible. It turns something I enjoy into more work.

So, while I thank each and every one of you who has read my work, I also apologize for the lack of execution of a proper follow-up to some of that work.

Complications with my daughter are hard on both of us. Despite her being the happiest, sweetest human being on earth who only shares her love with me, living with Avery, homeschooling her and doing so without help most of the time is exhausting, and if I am honest, depressing.

A FINAL THANKS AND WHY IT MATTERS

Writing about the Dolphins this last year, interacting with you guys and being involved in something again has helped me a great deal – mentally. It helped me feel connected, more involved and less depressed.

It has given me something to enjoy and something to do with my rare down time.

If I were still here with 60 followers on social and one person clicking on my articles – as was the case as late as last December – I am not sure I would want to continue this. It’s a lot of work and I ask for no compensation.

But as things picked up and people started to realize that I would not be writing just to write and would not be regurgitating what other writers and people on the beat even were producing, some of you found me and appreciated my work.

Please, all of you, take care of yourselves and if you have a loved one with a caretaker or a friend who has a special kid, please appreciate them. They may be quiet and seem to have faded away, but they are still there. And they want to be seen.

Thank you for seeing me and my work. I will get back to it when I can. Promise.