Judging Sabbatical

This past weekend my local community was lucky to have the Magic World Championships in our very own NYC. Congrats to Uri from Israel (left) for winning. I volunteered to judge the event which spanned four days, each of which were very long. This was the longest consecutive multi-day event I've ever judged and it was fairly debilitating; we completed 5 days of tournaments in only 4 days.

As detailed in my prior post, things have been very rough for me personally and professionally these past few weeks and I guess it showed when I was at Worlds. Judges who haven't seen me since Honolulu were happy to get reacquainted, but apparently I was noticeably different. I wasn't the same Hayden. I was mellow, distant, and worn out. On the last day Andy came over to me for a chat. Andy is the worldwide head of the judges. He asked me what was up. I told him about the difficulties I've had on all fronts and that I think I need to retire from judging because I'm not able to handle everything. I will be graduating in several months and there is a lot of work to be done. Plus, family and friends haven't been seeing me enough and I'm just not having enough fun in my life.

Andy was very honest with me and said that if WotC lost me as a judge it would be a great loss, but that judging is just a hobby and I need to get my Ph.D. He also said that if I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to, then I'm clearly burnt out and need to take a break and have some fun. He suggested that I take a sabbatical and once I graduate and settle into a job, I can then re-evaluate where I am and transition back into the community. It was great advice, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. I will miss my judging community, but I really do need this time to take the next step in my life. Then, once I have, I will be able to rejoin my community re-energized, with a new perspective, and most of all, with terms that better accomodate my needs.