Several years ago, after many weeks of debating about it, I decided to make one of the most stressful--and rewarding--financial decisions of my life thus far: Purchasing my first home. As I struggled to make up my mind whether this was really what I wanted to do, I sat down with a sheet of paper and wrote out all the reasons I could think of why going into six figures of debt just for a place to hang my hat was a good idea, and all the reasons why it wasn't. If I bought a house, I would finally have enough room for all the precious valuables (ok, junk) I had collected over the years. I wouldn't have to deal with landlords, yearly rent increases, or that noisy couple next door who always seemed to save their loudest arguments until sometime between midnight and 2am. Plus, there's just something downright satisfying about the idea of owning your own home instead of renting one from somebody else. But all those niceties come with a cost, both literally and metaphorically. First of all, I would be committing myself to a debt that would take the remainder of my youth, and about half of my middle age to pay off. When something broke, it would be my responsibility to get it fixed, and should that noisy couple happen to find their way into the house next door, it wouldn't be so easy to move away from them. The sheer enormity of it seemed completely overwhelming at first, and I strongly considered simply renting a larger apartment to avoid all that hassle. But in the end, taking the plunge into my first real estate purchase just seemed like the right thing to do. I can't say there haven't been times when I wish I hadn't done it (like when a major repair bill means spending money I was saving for something fun), but for the most part, I am happy with my decision.
When Dan asked me if I would be interested in taking Bright Side of the Sun as he moves on to greener (or purpler?) pastures, I found myself again trying to decide if a large investment--in this case, of time--was going to be worth it. While I had been seriously considering starting my own blog anyway, I was still a long way from certain I was definitely going to do it. I expected I would be making the final decision sometime around mid-October. Until then, I intended to give myself a nice long break from all things NBA-related, aside from the occasional glance over AZCentral and East Valley Tribune for news about the Suns. So, when Dan asked if I wanted the job, my first thought was "sure...in about three months, I'd love to!" But, this was something that needed to happen in July, not October. So I had to make up my mind right away whether or not I really wanted to have my own blog--and if accepting responsibility for Bright Side of the Sun was the right way to go about it. It ultimately came down to two questions: Was I ready to commit myself to writing about the Suns most, if not every day? And would my stepping in for the person who painstakingly built this place from the ground up into one of the best Suns-related communities out there be a good thing, or would it be analogous to a rookie trying to take over the starting point guard position from Steve Nash?
I think I can safely answer the first question affirmatively. Aside from wanting to take the summer "off" (which I wasn't doing a very good job of anyway), I would probably end up posting just as much whether I was administering the site or not. The answer to the second question is likely to be a work in progress for quite some time, but it helps a lot knowing it was Dan's idea to nominate me for the job. In the end, it all comes down to this: I would prefer to err on the side of accepting a challenge and giving it my best shot, than to let fear of coming up short by comparison be the reason why I didn't. So, with that said, I will now move out of my sidebar "apartment", and into a new home on the main page.
Many thanks to Dan for having already done the hard part to build this site into what it is today. It is not going to be the same without you, but much like teams continue trying to build and improve when great players move away, so will we. I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say congratulations on a well-earned opportunity!