Blog

Hey everyone. This is a little different than my usual articles but I just had the inspiration to write this. I’m going to put this in the music section simply based on the fact that I don’t know how to create another section on here. But, we move.

If you follow me on Instagram you know that every Saturday I do something called, “Show Love Saturdays” (a.k.a SLS). SLS is something I thought of randomly in the shower one day and I’ve been doing it now for about 13 weeks. What I do is I post three followers on my story and give background of how I know them and just shout them out. While doing that I’ve gotten a lot of messages just telling me how appreciative people are of the love and that inspired me to just keep going with it. And from that, I figured it’s the time to tell my own story. Because a lot of people that follow me on Instagram don’t really know who I am. To them I’m just an @ that either likes their pictures or views their story, but behind every @ is a story. And this is mine.

Chapter 1: The Beginning

You see those three people in the picture at the top? That’s my family. On the far left is my mom, then my little brother Alexandros and then my dad with his arm around me. Before you get to know me, you have to know about the people that brought me here. My wonderful parents. Here’s a little bit of their stories.

My Parents

My parents have a very unique story. My mom’s name is Khadija and my dad’s name is Nikolaos. We’ll start with my mom. My mom was born and raised in Marrakech, Morocco. She had a big family of two sisters and four brothers. My grandmother, Rita, passed away around 2013. She raised seven children and was one of the strongest women I ever knew. One story I’ll always remember about her was that she was allergic to anesthesia so she had to stay awake during a surgery on her leg. Like I said, one of the strongest woman I ever knew. I just remember early memories on vacations in Morocco running downstairs to go say good morning to everyone and she’d be in her spot in the kitchen prepping some food for the whole house. She would always give me the biggest hugs. I miss her a lot. My grandfather Abdullah, unfortunately passed away in 2000, when I was only one. Sometimes I wonder what he was like. My mom told me that he would always pick me up and play with me. I wish I could remember him. I don’t even know what his voice sounded like. It makes me sad but my mom always tells me how great of a dad he was. And that gives me some peace at heart.

My mom was always the smartest person in the room growing up. Every single family member told me that she always had her head in the books. On November 26th, 1987, she decided to take the biggest leap of them all. She decided to go to college in America. She left all her family and all she ever knew in Morocco to go live with a host family and go to school. She went to Salem State College (now University) in Salem, MA. She went on to get her bachelor’s and her masters degree there, but that wasn’t the most important thing she did there. She was the President of the International Students Association and she was also an orientation leader for new incoming students. She was helping students registering for classes and this Greek kid with long hair and red converses came running in. He was super nervous about not being able to get all 12 credits for the semester. My mom then went up to him and asked if there was anything she could help with. That Greek kid was Nikolaos Kouiroukidis, my dad.

My dad has always been the type of person to never give up. Whether it’s his work or just with life in general, whatever it is he’s going to make it happen. He was born and raised in Veria, Greece. My grandmother Noula, had the difficult task of raising four boys and my dad was the oldest. In Greek culture it is tradition for the first son to be named after the grandfather. So my grandfather’s name is also Ioannis, but you can say Yanni for short. That’s why I go by Yanni. Both of my dad’s parents are still alive, in fact I just saw both of them this past summer. There’s nothing like a grandmother’s love and my γιαγιά (grandma in Greek) Noula is a perfect example of that. I love them both so much, but there’s one thing that hurts my heart whenever I go to Greece. In 2004, my grandfather, or παππού in Greek, suffered a stroke. He went into a coma but thankfully he woke up. However, when he woke up he lost complete feeling in his left side and didn’t know how to speak and a lot of other things. He has regained speech and can have some conversations, but obviously he’s not the same as he was before. The reason why I say my heart hurts is that I don’t remember him before the stroke. I don’t remember how funny my dad says he was or he was always joking with me and my brother, but I’m still very blessed and thankful that he’s alive and he still lights up every time he sees me.

I think my dad came to America in 1990, I could be wrong though. But one thing is for sure though, he did meet my mom at Salem State. They started off as friends first but then started dating and got married on July 19th, 1997. And on June 23rd, 1999, they welcomed me into the world. And then on February 27th, 2001, they welcomed my little brother Alexandros into the world. My parents have always been very school-oriented but they always were caring and loving when we needed it. Growing up, my dad would be gone four days of the week to go work in Virginia. He did that for about 10 or 11 years, flying weekly from Boston to Dulles. When I got older I realized the struggle and sacrifice that took from my dad. They came to this country with nothing but hopes and dreams of just getting an education. 30+ years later, and here we are. Without their constant love and support I wouldn’t be who I am today. I wouldn’t have achieved what I have achieved so far in life. I thank God for them, but most importantly I show love to them in every way possible. When I was at school, I called them every single day. My parents have been through a lot to get us where we are right now. My dad got on those flights every week and worked his butt off and my mom did an incredible job raising us with strong principles and love. Both of them left home and couldn’t see their families a lot for over 30 years. My mom lost both of her parents and two of her brothers and she wasn’t there each time when they passed. I don’t even know what I would do if that happened to me, but she still finds a way to keep going and smiling.

My parents are my heroes. They always have been and they always will be. I only pray to do half as good of a job as they did with raising me and my brother when I have kids.

My brother

If you know me you know that wherever you see my brother, you see me. It’s been that way ever since Alexandros came out the womb. Growing up, I always used to hear other kids say “my brother/sister is so annoying, I hate them”, and I would always get super confused. I never ever had that feeling about my brother and I think that has a lot to do how we were raised. My mom always told us, “you two have nobody else but yourselves. You always need to love each other no matter what.” And we’ve honestly stuck by that. There’s no one on this Earth that I am closer to. He knows everything about me and vice versa. The amount of inside jokes we have are insane. We spend nearly 90% of our time together and I cherish every moment. It doesn’t matter if we get into the biggest argument of all time, 15 minutes later we sitting down laughing at a YouTube video together. I still remember standing on top of the North Reading High School bleachers and watching him get 28 tackles in a single game like a madman. I was grinning from ear to ear. He’s always been resilient and he never stops until he achieves what he wants, just like my dad. That’s a quality that will take him to the top and I can’t wait to see him shine even brighter. He’ll always be the other half of my heart and I’ll always be thankful for him.

Chapter 2: Early years

Growing up in Massachusetts was… interesting. Where I grew up there wasn’t much diversity or just people that were like me. I mean, so far in life, I’m the only Greek & Moroccan that I’ve ever met. I remember going to Roberts Elementary in Medford, Massachusetts one day and opening my lunch and just all these kids laughing at my “weird lunch”. They over there eating lunchables every day but I bring couscous and I’M the crazy one. I say all this but obviously Massachusetts was a big part of my life. I grew up being a die-hard Patriots and Celtics fan and I still am to this day. I remember when I was in second grade my mom used to take me every week to the Flint Memorial Library in North Reading and I would go running up the steps every time to read autobiographies about NFL stars and John Madden books about the rules of football. That’s what started my passion for football and sports in general.

It was just really hard for me to fit in. I wasn’t getting bullied every day, I still had a good amount of friends, but the kids were just different than me. They didn’t grow up in the culture that I did. They didn’t understand why I couldn’t sleepover someone else’s house. They didn’t understand why I couldn’t go to their house unless my parents met their parents. They looked at me weird when I wore a certain type of shoes. That’s just the way it was.

On December 31st, 2010, we packed up everything and moved from North Reading, Massachusetts to Leesburg, Virginia. This meant a lot of things. I was leaving all my friends behind in Massachusetts and everything I’d ever known, but it also meant that my dad would be home everyday. I cried when my dad first told us, but on the way down in the U-Haul truck I had a realization that this move would be super exciting for us. When you’re a kid the first thing you think about when you move somewhere is how can I make friends at this new school? So my first day at Belmont Ridge Middle School was spent trying to make some friends. And while walking to my second period math class I saw this kid in the hallways with dreads and he introduced himself to me as Drew Lewis. Over 11 years later, me and Drew are still close friends. Another friend that I made at Belmont Ridge was Sohan Kumar, who crazily enough lived three doors down from me. So from 6th-8th grade there were a lot of quick trips to the Kumar house to ring on the doorbell and ask to see if Sohan was free. These guys are more than just friends, I consider them brothers and they’re going to be at my wedding. I’m thankful for them and I’m happy that we still talk.

However, life hit another curveball, as my parents had announced to me that after I graduated from middle school that we’d be moving 15 minutes away to Ashburn, VA. This meant after three years of developing friendships and bonds at Belmont Ridge, that I would have to go to a completely different high school. This really hit me hard until one day at the lunch table I found out that one of my friends was going to be moving and also going to that same school. That friend was Walter Reyes. One of best friends and my college roommate for two years. We’ll get to him some more later.

Chapter 3: High School

For every kid in America, high school is a pivotal part of one’s life. You’re starting to find your favorite interests and you’re seeing who your true friends can possibly be for maybe the rest of your life. My high school life didn’t start off that way. I went to Briar Woods High School my freshman year. Me and Walter walked into the auditorium for orientation and we knew absolutely nobody. When they handed us our schedules we quickly realized that we also had no classes together. When I saw that I immediately just felt a looming feeling of loneliness. And honestly, that’s how I mostly remember my freshman year at Briar. I made some friends there but the only one that would truly stick around was Walter and Sithon (we’ll also get to him later). I just remember being in the house a lot that year and that was the year I first started my YouTube channel “YanniSportsNation”. However, that wasn’t met with such great reception as some kids thought it was cool to make fun of me for it. Like in North Reading, I was just different than most of the kids that went to that school. The culture was different and I just didn’t feel apart of whatever they had going on.

Sophomore year we were re-zoned to the new school that they built called Rock Ridge. Now this school would be where I would graduate from and meet some of my best friends, but it didn’t get off to a great start. Sophomore year was rough. I was constantly getting made fun of and I didn’t know how to either stand up for myself or come back with a rebuttal. I don’t really know how to explain it. I had friends, but it just felt like a constant whirlwind of jokes that I couldn’t join in on the laughter with. Despite how bad sophomore year was, it pushed me to do something that would change my life. And that was to join the football team the summer going into my junior year. That summer I got close to some people I call my best friends today like Sithon Hul, Khalil Snekcim and Omar Ahmed. And the way people started talking to me was different now. I felt welcomed and part of something bigger than myself. First time I truly felt comfortable somewhere, and it showed for the rest of my time there. I would say I was just cool with everybody, I don’t think anyone really hated me or vice versa from junior year to graduation. We weren’t the best team out there, but I truly did have a blast out there on the offensive line.

Chapter 4: Community College Experience

So before I gradated high school, I didn’t know where I was going to school. I got accepted to two schools, Old Dominion University in Norfolk and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. I hadn’t made my decision yet, but I was super excited to join either honestly. Then one day, my mom and dad sat my down to talk about college. They proceeded to tell me that I was going to have to go to Northern Virginia Community College (or NOVA for short) in Sterling, Virginia. Now if you’re not from Loudoun County you wouldn’t know that NOVA has a big stigma or reputation that surrounds it. The stigma is that if you go to NOVA that you’re a “bum” or you “weren’t smart enough to get into a four-year”. At least that’s what I was hearing before I went there. A memory that I always remember from NOVA is my friends and I sitting down in the common area and we were all just annoyed with the fact that our friends at universities were having so much fun, but we were stuck here. That wasn’t the only thing going “wrong” with my college experience though.

My first semester of college went horribly. In addition to just not being happy in general, my grades were absolute shit.

Two C’s, two D’s and a B in College Success Skills. The class that is required to be taken by all students that is like an introduction to school and how you should prepare for classes. And I got a B. So after this horror show of a first semester I remember my mom and dad sitting me down outside on our balcony to talk about my schooling. In middle school I was always an honor student, in high school I struggled but still managed to get average grades and then in college it seemed to look like my academic career was crashing. I’ll never forget this conversation I had with my parents. My dad told me with a straight face, “Yanni, you don’t have to go to school to be successful.” That is true, but I just remember the look on my mom’s face when he said that. She just looked so hurt and sad that I possibly could become part of that NOVA stigma that I mentioned earlier. Just another NOVA dropout. As someone that held education so close to her heart as both a student and teacher, I could tell I was letting her down. That’s the first time in my life I truly felt like a failure. Like what was I supposed to be in life if I couldn’t even get by community college? And as you see in the bottom of that screenshot I continued to get Academic Warnings until May 2018.

Another thing that really sucked about my experience at NOVA was the fact that I had to stay back and do an extra year. After failing pre-calculus twice I decided to switch my major from Business Administration to General Studies for the rest of my time at NOVA. So in order for that to go through, I had to do the dreaded third year of community college. Crazy enough, that was my best year of school. That Fall 2019 semester saw me pass all my classes for the first time and even make dean’s list. 2019 also was the year that I created this very website. July 1st, 2019 was the first article I ever published and I wrote it in an AirBnb in Spain. And just as I was starting to get some stability in my life, 2020 happened.

Chapter 5: The hardest year of my life

2020 was something different. There were three major factors that made this year the most difficult of my life. The first factor was that COVID-19 shut everything down. All of my favorite sports were shut down indefinitely and obviously that’s a big part of who I am. School got shut down and I could barely see my friends. The next factor was the passing of my uncle Abdellatif in April. He was the second youngest of my mom’s brothers and he has two little girls. There are moments in life that no matter what, you can never forget. The crying scream that my mom let out when she got the call that he passed is something that I will never forget. I cried for hours that day. I remember just sitting in the bathroom and just hysterically crying and I couldn’t stop.

The last factor was something that I haven’t yet mentioned in this article, but was a very big part of my life. I was in a relationship that started in May 2018 and lasted until May 2020. I’m not going to get too into it but this was my first girlfriend and someone who I was very close to at the time. So when shit eventually didn’t work out it hit me very, very hard. From May of that year to October, for the first time in my life, I was truly depressed. I gave my heart to this person and then when we broke up, I was truly lost. So now let’s put all three of the factors together.

1. COVID-19 shut everything down and messed up my college experience + time with friends
2. My uncle passed away in April
3. My two year relationship came to an end

The one constant throughout all the madness was the support from the people around me. My brother and my friends were always there to support me and talk to me about what was going on. After two months of being stuck in the house and not seeing any of my friends, we finally decided to go hangout at night at this one closed down Harris Teeter in Ashburn. We would bring our own chairs and just sit in the parking lot until 2 or 3 in the morning and just talk. We called it, “The Spot”. We would go to the spot probably three or four days a week for about two months until I went to school. The spot was crucial in me just getting through that difficult summer. The one positive throughout all three of those things was that I had gotten accepted to VCU. I moved down to Richmond in August 2020 and even though I was excited to live with my best friends, I just wasn’t happy. I would just wake up every day either sad or angry. I was heartbroken, home-sick and just overwhelmed with everything going on. But one day in October, something clicked in my head. I just sat down and realized that I only have one chance to become what I want to be in this life. I can’t sit down and dwell on the past constantly because then I’m just going to miss my life flying by. So I just narrowed in on my studies and set my mind on one goal. Graduating from VCU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Journalism.

Chapter 6: The Resurgence

When I finally escaped from being a prisoner of my own mind, I put all my focus and drive into what I was doing. Whether it was writing for the school paper, my classes, or my website, I knew that I wanted to get my end goal of graduating. Summer of 2021 came and me and my brother took a short trip out to Los Angeles. I’ve always wanted to live in California and just being there for five days gave me that extra motivation to keep going.

Senior Year at VCU

The hardest I’ve ever worked in my life was my senior year at VCU. From the start I knew that what I wanted to accomplish was so close, but it was going to take a whole lot of effort. From the start of the Fall 2021 semester I already started by getting in contact with Sam Wolfe, who eventually became my co-host of our podcast, “Two Possession Game”. I reached out to Sam on Instagram to start a show together and from there we just hit it off. At VCU I did things that I had always dreamed of like have my own radio show/podcast and commentate live sports games. I was doing my radio show, commentating games, writing articles on here, working two jobs and taking five classes all at once. Like I said, hardest I’ve ever worked in my life.

But nothing great comes without hardship and I truly believe in that. Spring semester came and the workload got even bigger. This time around I was filming and editing with professional cameras/software, something that I had a lot of trouble with but I persevered. However, the best part about my senior year at VCU was living with my three best friends.

Living with these three guys will always be a core memory in my life. The late night basketball sessions, talks about life until 4 a.m., our Madden & 2K tournaments and just the bond that we created will never leave me. My last semester at VCU was truly bittersweet. I was super excited to graduate and move on to the next step of my life, but I was sad to leave a lot of the friendships I made at school. I met a lot of great people at VCU and it is still a big part of who I am. In fact, if you’re reading this right now, it’s at least a 50% chance we met at VCU. Bottom line is, I finished school this past May with a GPA of 3.3 graduating with a degree in Digital Journalism. I made Dean’s List twice in my time at VCU, including my final semester. I made a lot of friends, I pursued my career of choice by doing both radio and play-by-play commentary and I created memories that will last a lifetime.

Chapter 7: The Present

So what’s going on in my life now. Right now I’m working as a Production Assistant at NBC Sports Washington in Washington D.C. and I’ve been loving my time there so far. I’ve been learning how to create graphics for TV, log games and work in a TV production room. I’ve met some amazing people while I’ve been there and I am excited to keep getting better and better. These past 10 weeks I’ve been on a different level of work ethic. I’ve written 26 articles on here (this will be my 126th article in total) and I’ve restarted my Youtube channel which is now called “YSN”. I’ve edited and uploaded 23 videos since August 11th and the channel has already gotten over 1,000 views total.

In terms of where I’m at mentally, I’ve never been better. Ever since January 2021, I can say with 100% honesty that I’ve been genuinely happy. That’s in big part to my family, friends and the benefits of my hard work.

Before I wrap up this article, I just want to list some things about myself that I might’ve missed.

1. I started really getting into music in 2013/14. My favorite genres are Rap and R&B.
2. My favorite artists are Meek Mill, Bryson Tiller, Kanye West, Drake, Rod Wave and Giveon
3. Some of my favorite songs are Cold Hearted by Meek Mill, Right My Wrongs by Bryson Tiller, FAVORITE MISTAKE by Giveon, Keep Doing What You’re Doing by Bryson Tiller, Natural Disaster/Aura by Chris Brown, Dark Clouds by Rod Wave and Jaded by Drake
4. I’ve always loved sports video games and by late December I should be streaming FIFA, Madden and possibly 2K
5. I love taking pictures/videos of sunsets. I used to have over 330 sunset/sky pictures on my phone but I had to transfer them to my computer for space
6. When I was in middle school and high school my teachers would always tell me that my writing wasn’t good and that I needed to work on it. I then went on to write for my college school paper and have a whole website now with over 125 articles
7. My instagram is public because of two things. First, I feel like if you’re private you are prone to maybe missing an opportunity. I know it’s unlikely but you never know. And second, I want my kids to one day go through my instagram and see how their dad was.
8. Which leads to my next thing, if I had a time machine I would 100% go back in time to meet my parents when they were my age first.
9. My favorite YouTubers are the Mallory Bros, Shawn Cee, BarfieBoy, Bengal, ImDontai and FlightReacts
10. My favorite places in the world are Greece, Morocco, Barcelona and Los Angeles

Chapter 8: Thank You

And yeah, that’s my story. I just want to end this article off with a big thank you. Thank you to everyone that supports me no matter if it’s just one article or every single one I appreciate all of you guys. I’m 23 now and life seems to be flying by, but the key is I’m enjoying every moment. I’ve got a great group of people around me and I’m constantly learning new things. Recently at work I sat with NFL legends Brian Mitchell, Santana Moss and Torrey Smith and just talked football with them. While I was talking to them I couldn’t help but think about little Yanni running up those Flint Memorial Library stairs excited to read another book about NFL history. I’ve come so far and this is truly only the beginning.

I’ve been just sitting and reminiscing of the past couple hours while writing this article. There’s been some moments where I started to cry a little bit about my loved ones that I’ve lost, but then I remember that it’s just part of everyone’s lives. There are always going to be struggles, but it’s your ability to see that light at the end of the tunnel that will keep you going.

Everything I’ve been through has made me who & what I am.

Everything I did and do is for and with a purpose.

Tell your friends and family you love them constantly, because you never know when you’ll have your last moments with them.

And always remember, we have no other choice… but to move.

I thank God every day for the life that He has given me. I never wanted to be anyone or anything else besides myself. When I die, I want to leave this Earth with a legacy. I want people to remember me for how I showed love to the ones around me. I want people to feel the impact that I left. I want to be remembered forever and I know I can do it. I’ll bet on myself every time until I take my last breath. And I’ll always be there for my loved ones.

Thank you for listening.

My name is Ioannis Kouiroukidis, and this is my story.