So long, and thanks for all the fish
Holy shit, it's almost three years since I started out here on E2.
I used to be a fairly regular poster here when I was thirteen, and possibly the youngest noder on this site. I remember a few Catbox coversations where people would be all "how old are you anyways" and I'd be all "i'm like thirteen so it's not much use inviting me to your nodermeets" and then there'd be this catbox silence.
Then I'd usually stick a bucket over craze's head.
So I've been on a kind of hiatus here, and it's not really ending. So I'm maing it semi-demi-kinda permanent.
I'm in Year Eleven at the moment. That may not be that scary for all you grown ups out there, but it sure is terrifying to me. One year until my whole future hangs on what I get for my TER score, and one year until I have to make choices that will affect my whole life. Do I want to be a vet after all? Or will I change my mind when I get a shit TER score?
Not only have my priorities shifted away from E2, I'm no longer the person I was when I wrote all those awesome, ching-aged stories. I'm not a writer anymore, though I'm still in denial.
Oh yeah, and I've kind of come to resent E2 and all over the last... 2.8 years. The voting/experience system has gotten me down a little. I was getting upvotes and chings galore when I started out, but my last two or so writeups have only managed negative or neutral scores. I might be getting a little vain here, but I feel bad when stories/poems/whatever you'd call my new stuff that I like get voted down. I know you people are probably a bit overcritical, but as a voter myself I'd like to say I never once downvoted anyone's stuff. Eat that, downvoting trolls.
So I'd like to draw all these complicated emotions to a conclusion. I have different priorities now. I don't write any more. I resent the upvote/downvote system. It's not hard to see where I'm heading, noders.
So I'm going on an indefinite hiatus. I might be back one day, when all the freakin' terrifying TER stuff is all behind me and I get the chance to sit down with pen and paper and write again. I might not be back. I don't know.
I'd like to take this chance to thank a few people: Apatrix for her help in tracking down a few rogue nodes, and being a friend in general; craze, for putting up with my childish attempts to join in the adult silliness; hunt05 for being a pretty cool unofficial mentor; tentative, for being one of the few that likes most of my stuff; and waverider37 for getting me into this freaking whacked out place.
To the rest of you, particularly those who chinged/upvoted my stuff, thanks. I might see you again one day... but then, I might not. Who knows what the future holds?
Good luck with the future and all, tentative. I hope you stick it out here longer than I did.