One year down...
One year! Today is my one year anniversary here on Everything2. Wow. One year just flew past. From stumbling, bashful,
clueless initiate, to stumbling, less bashful, but still fairly clueless
scribe.
I have learned a lot in this past year. Among other things, my written English has become much better. My vocabulary has grown. My spoken English has also improved since I tend to read funny nodes out loud to my "Can not be bothered with E2" SO. I have spoken to so many great noders, some of whom has been gracious enough to call me their friend. I have found that noders are very much like people outside of E2: Sweet, polite, mean, friendly, weird, intelligent, straightforward, open, negative, philosophical, and so on.
Everything2 has meant a lot to me on so many levels. Still does. I have found a place where I can go on and on about my favourite sport and passion: sumo. I have found a place where a lot of people care. About me, a noder. A username. About each other. I have found that I care about a lot of people (noders, usernames). It has brought me sorrow at times, and anxiety. A lot of joy and good laughs.
I still have the nagging feeling ('I could have done better, couldn't I...?') when I post a new writeup. I still get very happy about upvotes, nice msgs, and C!s - and downvotes and nasty msgs still make me uncomfortable. But I can deal.
Thing is... I like it here, very much. I spend a lot of time just reading, marvelling at the number of wonderful nodes. Poetry, fiction, factuals, daylogs... I know I'll never run out of stuff to read. I spend some time in the Catbox too, goofing around - but mostly I just follow the discussions while reading or writing.
I have things on my mind, and I don't node as much as I did a couple of months ago, but I don't feel like leaving. No, I'll stick around; do my bit, voting, reading, writing, chatting... Generally having a very good time.
Thank you, all of you, who make this such a sweet place.