Bad News: An Announcement from Kyle (Patreon)

First the blunt facts:
I’ll be leaving Easy Allies and Los Angeles at the end of next month
My last solo stream will be Friday, April 17th.
My last group stream will be Tuesday, April 21st.
My last Easy Allies Podcast will be posted on Friday, April 24th for early access and publicly on Sunday, April 26th.

Apologies if that was abrupt, I’ve just read a few of these kinds of posts before and the opening sentences are always excruciating as you’re just waiting to get to the bad news.
And I realize this is bad news in a time of rampant bad news. I have a job that I love working with people I love for a community I love and yet today I’m announcing that, after four years with Easy Allies, it’s time for me to go.

Before anything else I need to make it clear how grateful I am to the Easy Allies community. From March of 2016, when we nervously cobbled Easy Allies together, to today, I feel like a different, calmer, more understanding person. I feel simply better. And, sincerely, not just saying this to be sweet, I owe a great deal of that feeling to this amorphous collection of funny and supportive internet viewers and commenters. I frequently think about the people who have said I’ve improved their day or week or year, and I can only offer my earnest thanks in return and apologize for putting myself first this time.

Our team has known about my exit for a while and have been making plans to cover my absence. The Easy Allies Podcast will of course continue; Jones will nurture it like his very own podcast. Gundam streams will carry on, Damiani will produce Achieve It Yourself, and Don has promised to pick up my slack for future betting specials. No one has volunteered to take over my trash bag duties yet.

As for my own future, I can’t say where I’m going. Not in a fun way where I have a sweet gig lined up that has to stay secret for now, I actually don’t know. Usually people who write these will say “Can’t wait to see what’s next, very excited! I’m very young baby!” but to be honest with you I’m terrified of not knowing what’s next, and that’s sort of the point.
My fear is that your fear is that I’ll just go do what I’m doing now somewhere else. That’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for my life’s Main Thing, something that demands my full potential and potentially fully failing at it. Currently I feel like I’m eating french fries every day. I love french fries, I will always eat french fries, but I'm coming to realize I have to eat more than french fries.

This is also to say that I don’t imagine I’ll disappear forever. I want to get my Main Thing established, or at least get on the path to this nebulous Main Thing, and then figure out my french fries from there. I told you I’m streaming a full playthrough of Digimon World and you better believe I’m going to follow through on that. I’m just not going to start up my own Twitch channel next week. Please understand if I’m offline for a while.  

If you have questions, concerns, advice, or just want to make sure this isn’t a prank, I’m starting tonight’s stream a half hour early to give us all a chance to talk about everything. ( 8:30pm PT on twitch.tv/easyallies ) EDIT: Now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO6Px29ngmA

Once more I’d like to thank the supporters of Easy Allies. I only have this opportunity because of everything you’ve given us. You might have noticed I’ve stopped using “Love and Respect” as a signoff in Patreon posts. Secretly I just hated seeing it used against us as the stupidest ironic checkmate in comments sections. However, I’d like to indulge in the notion one last time as I feel it’s especially appropriate in this situation.

Love and Respect,
Kyle