Ninjas, Friends, and Family 2026 Gathering.
Last night we had a gathering of Friends, Family, and a lot of Ninjas (former and present...I guess I'm one of the "former ninjas now"). Right before this picture was taken I gave a brief speech about how much I loved everyone here, but being on the spot, I knew I was forgetting something that I wanted to mention during my brief "speech". Three minutes after my speech, when everyone moved on, I then recalled what I wanted to also say to everyone... so maybe I'll just put it here and perhaps some of you might see this someday....but here's what I wanted to also say:
About 15 minutes before we left for the party, I asked Katey, "Say, what did we think we were doing with our lives this time last year at this party? I can't recall." (Our plans have changed nearly weekly for the past three years.)
Katey said, "We were planning to get Antigua citizenship and travel around the world for the next year."
Huh... oh yeah....
And this past year we nearly did get our Antigua citizenship...but in November of last year, we were briefly in NY and we decided to host Thanksgiving at our Airbnb...and the next day we decided to move back to New York (in a few months)....we also decided to skip the Antigua citizenship....and to move back to NY and stay here...even if we worry about the future of the US....
Why?
Because we found that friends and family are worth more than anything to us. We'd rather be near our friends than anywhere else in the world. Many of the people in the picture helped me and my dreams for many many years... and I hope that I've helped them as well. I always want to be near to this group.
So if you're in this picture, this is the part of the speech I forgot... thank you for being part of the reason we came home.
Will we settle down here for good? Probably... but who knows. Life has a way of throwing plot twists at us. Either way, last night reminded us that we're already home.
2 Comments
You've definitely helped us all achieve our dreams, Jim! I am so thankful for my Ninja history that put me on this path in life! Saturday was so fun. Thank you for always bringing our big Ninja family together. ❤️ #NinjasForever
Jim, I wish I could put it into words just how much you helped me, I’m going to try! Just by being you and surrounding yourself with great, loving people- it opened my eyes to what “life” could really be. Ninjas just wasn’t a job for me, it was a start over! I was working three jobs, no days off, and ninjas came along! I received an income I could thrive on, I learned stability, the first environment that aloud you to grow and be unapologetically yourself. Ninjas was and is hands down one of the best and major milestones of my life and I can’t ever thank you enough for that.
Just like Ronnie-Lee said, #NinjasForever
I’m so glad you get to enjoy the time you have now, you worked so damn hard for it! ❣️