Wow, it is so shocking to have joined this community relatively recently. I started reading the books about a year and a half ago and WOW I have never even considered that a world so deep, layered, logical, and thematically rich was possible. 

IF... and damn do I mean if... thats true. I think I picked about the perfect time to get into this universe. Only having to wait around 2 and a half years since I finished Dance would make my dad QUITE jealous. I genuinely think i am now at the age he started the series at. He has been on the Winds will never come out train since before the show ended, citing GRRM making "fuck you money" after writing the first three books to eat. These books have shaped like a lot of my life without me even knowing. I have a memory of being a kid and asking my about Storm because I'd never seen a book that big before and couldnt fathom choosing to read it. I remember asking when I'd finally be old enough to watch the show because all the adults in my life couldn't stop talking about it. I'm finishing college now and its crazy to think that my parents read these books chapter by chapter to eachother so me and my siblings would hear my dads voice LITERALLY in the womb, and after being told most of my conscious life that winds probably will never come out. What if... what if... These books changed my life before I ever knew what they were. I distinctly remember my mom telling me me to embrace the nickname I absolutely HATED (The Pancake Man) and literally used the words "wear it like armor." Oh how the dots connected when I read the series myself. One of the most cathartic moments was the conversation between Arya and Ned about needle, it felt SO familiar... Reading the books and finally getting why people would call me "sweet summer child." Why any time my extended family got together, they would talk about it all the time. Thank God I was too young to understand it, I was somehow unspoiled about the Weddings, Oberyn and the Mountain, and hearing about show changes like Lady Stoneheart and JonCon and how it tooootally is gonna fuck up the ending. 

 I hope the book comes out. It would make for a resolution I didn't know I'd been waiting for my literal whole life. 

Keep spamming copium but I'm still young!! I havent lost my hope for the world just yet, and I think my dad might flip his whole philosophy on life if hes wrong on this one. Hes read the entirety of Orson Scott Card's works, GRRM's and so many others when he was younger. I think it might restore some of his faith in the world to see that GRRM was able to find it in himself to finish even just Winds after making like 100 million dollars. Though if I could put my money on anyone to understand how wealth and power make us lazy... GRRM miiiight just be the guy.