I didn't win the lottery (congratulations to whoever in Brand Blanc, hopefully you're a Michigan fan and some of that money goes to NIL), but one of my dreams did come true: Brian linked to one of my posts! (In the Rose Bowl review, https://mgoblog.com/content/way-out, about going to the game not alone)

Of course there's also the other one that happened - Michigan finally won it.  My story is not unique, or particularly insightful, but writing about it will bring me catharsis, and hopefully does so for others as well.

I grew up in Michigan but didn't really watch (non Red Wings) sports until freshman year at Michigan (early 2000s).  Going from high school to college, I suddenly had all this time to fill, and sports filled the void.  As per my studently duties, I watched games on Saturday, cheered, was dismayed.

My first "big experience" was the 2006 Football Armageddon.  In an alumni bar, lunch on a pool table, I got to experience for the first time in my life (I can remember) that kind of disappointment (the Piston's lost to the Spurs, but they had won the previous year so it was okay).  A few years later, after expectations for Michigan football had dropped, I remember watching Tate Forcier fall down exhausted at the end of almost beating MSU, and I made a realization.

Coping mechanisms: The heartache of losing (for me, at least) was more about the lack of opportunity to celebrate the win.  I imagined all the articles that people could have written about how Forcier willed the team to victory, left everything on the field, and won an otherwise meaningless (in grand scheme of things) game.  This realization helped me accept the losing (in all sports) over the years - losses still stung, but in a vastly different way.

Admission time: thanks to smartphones, I've almost never planned for watching Michigan games.  Saturday mornings (living on the west coast) are usually not that busy anyways, and even if I'm out and about I can stream the game on my phone worst case.  After years of losing to OSU, in 2021 we coincidentally had the rare plan that actually prevented me from watching game at all, and I was totally OK with that, I didn't need another reminder that Michigan was not playing the same game (pre-NIL).  And then we won!  Then I barely watched the Georgia game that year.  Then I barely watched the 2nd half of the TCU game (following on my phone told me that watching it would only make me more aggravated).  But at the grocery store they had it on the TV, and I saw (I forget exactly, but some other stupid terrible thing that happened during that game), and just followed the rest of it out on ESPN.com.  That one didn't bother me either - Georgia looked unstoppable.

This year: As eveyrone has said, this year was different.  This year we were favored.  This year I watched every game.  This year Georgia lost, and (thankfully, correctly) was not chosen for the playoff, so we "only" had "lucky to get there" Alabama team to play in the first round.  This year I spent an obscene (for my cheapness) amount of money to "watch a football game" that meant way more than that.  This year we won.

This year, for the next several weeks I get to read and listen to stuff that's going to increase my happiness.