By Kathy Rousseau – Uh hello, it’s me, the new Cheering The Logo owner. *shy wave*

To say I do not have those “first pair of skates” or “first time at the Bell Centre” jitters writing this, would be a lie!! I’m very excited for this new adventure that I’m about to take on with all of you. I believe there’s already a great team in place, so my goal is not to come in and change everything. I instead want to focus my time finding new ways to advertise this website, bring even more eyes on all the work put into the content and have an open door concept for everyone who wants to contribute and share ideas. Hockey has always been my passion, one that just seems to grow more intense every season. I do love hockey, but I love the CH more than anything. I’ve always wanted to do more than just tweet about them and I’m very thankful to J.D. for trusting me on this take over.

I guess this is the part where I tell you a little bit about myself. Well, my name is Kathy, I’m in my late 30s and currently I work from home in management. I had recently started hunting for a second career path, something to fill the other hours of the day, but I decided to put that on hold for now when this opportunity came up and buy a website. It sure feels like the timing was a sign for me. After decades of working in fields I am not that passionate about, I think it’s time I do things for myself, my passions and take the leap.

While I recently moved to Leafs country Ontario for family reasons, my heart remains in Montréal in many ways and I have been returning as often as I can, especially to catch a game like February 14th against the Chicago Blackhawks. It doesn’t matter how many times I sit in that crowd, I am always propelled back to having those first time butterflies when I see the players come out on the ice. I still get tears in my eyes during the national anthem or when a first happens in front of me. I was there when Nick Suzuki scored his first goal and I will never forget that moment. I have been a hockey fan for as long as I can remember.

One of my earliest memories is of my uncle, who was then a teenager when I was a toddler. He would make balls with tape he would find around the house and we would sit on the floor using my grand mother’s wooden spoons to shoot the ball of tape around. I would pretend to be Guy Lafleur, Vincent Damphousse and Patrick Roy just to name a few. It was an odd dynamic since my grand father was a Québec Nordiques fan and my uncles were LA Kings and Chicago Blackhawks fans, but not me, I had the CH glued to my little heart from the moment I laid eyes on the bleu, blanc, rouge and I have never wavered a day in my life.

What kind of fan am I and what can you expect from me as a Habs fan? Well, I can say that I’m usually the hopeful glass half full type of fan. The way I see it, there’s very little that could happen to make me turn on this team. In my heart, I may not be married, but I took a vow when I tattooed that logo on my chest as a child, it was a vow through thick and thin and I try to maintain that through all the ups and downs the team has to offer us. It’s important to call out the bad moves, it’s important to talk about the issues. I do not believe in having rose coloured glasses about it either, finding a balance is the key. The balance for me is being patient. I hope to bring that energy to this new adventure and I look forward to hearing from and about all of you, because we Habs fans matter!!!

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