GAMES HAVE CHANGED THIS CITY FOREVER

WHETHER you left town, loved them, liked or maybe lumped them, the Games have changed us – and our city – in incalculable ways.

And they’re not done changing us all yet.

It’s more than a change for the better in the number of visitors and bed nights we, like Glasgow, can look forward to in their wake.

It’s the changes we’ll make with the benefit of hindsight, knowing what worked and what failed the test.

We’ll see change as a new generation of good, great and unbeatable sports push themselves towards ultimate physical tests, powered by daydreams of the unforgettable things they witnessed at our Games, watching the world’s best.

The Games have shaped everything from kerbs to suspicious minds, divided us and put us off and on the same sides.

They’ve fuelled and starved our interest in politics, business, the arts and sport.

There’s no telling how the Games have changed our army of volunteers, the proud to be of service men and women who have each given and been gifted in return.

The Games have and will move mountains, crush spirits, bruise egos and make up minds.

The change they bring will ignite bright ideas, burn bridges and maybe even convince bleaters to become leaders who can show us a different path.

Some of us will change address, others will travel far. If you call this Coast home, may you realise how lucky we are.

Kids inspired by their chance to eyewitness sport’s heartbreaks and rewards on their doorsteps, in their backyards and on their streets are already forever changed.

Games change will motivate, sway and hopefully reveal a better way.

Win, lose or draw, the Games have left their mark on us all.

Our city has changed in front of us and out from under us, in our eyes and in the world’s.

Some of us might never realise (nor care) if change has come, and when; others won’t understand what’s happened now until it’s pointed out again. May we all grow old enough to recall this time – the time the Games shaped what came next.

The Games were not always perfect – there were teething troubles, as there always are at the beginning of something special.

But they were never less than thrilling and inspiring, a glittering testament to the best of the human spirit.

This was a transformative event. Our future, always positive, can now be brighter still.

The two weeks of these Games will never be forgotten.