Hi there! Thanks for reaching out. You can share this story if you'd like.
My journey was a long one indeed. I was first introduced to bridge as a child at the dining room table. My parents were social players and had their own "conventions." It was not until college at RPI in upstate NY (in the mid 1980's) that I discovered competitive bridge. We had an active college club and played all the time at our student union, and at the local club in Schenectady. We had the good fortune of getting to work with Lynne Deas. For some reason she believed our rag tag group of college students was fun to have around. It was at the RPI bridge club that I met my (now) wife as well. She "borrowed" the deck of cards I kept in my coat pocket one day as she knew I'd come looking for it. We have been life partners ever since.
I started going to regionals and nationals back then and managed to get all my Gold, Red and Black points for LM but not my Silvers. So many memories from this period –– like my partner passing a grand–slam–force bid; as he correctly surmised 5NT was the last making contract. I also remember drawing the chinese national team day 1 of the spingold –– they bid and made 7D two hands in a row to start the match. We knew we were cooked then! (Funny enough, my wife got me a turtle one birthday back then, and we named it Spingold!).
After college I took a long hiatus from competitive bridge. Work, and then raising a family were a higher priority. I moved from NY, to Boston where we lived for many years. and then to Australia. Four years ago we decided to move back from Australia to NJ. One day when in Manhattan, on a lark, I decided to find a bridge game. It was there that I met David Ganin who happened to also be looking for a random game. Dave and I hit it off right away, He (and his lovely mom Barbara) sucked me back into the competitive game and introduced me to District 3. We started playing in sectionals as both Barbara and I were chasing the last bit of silver we needed for Life Master. She got hers first (congrats Barnara), and then I got mine during the last BBO Silver Week.
Anyway, that's it. Started in the 1980's and finished in the 2020's. A timeless game indeed.