10 posts may not be much to some people, but it could take me a month, so this will have to do.
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An extraordinary thing happened to me on Tuesday. When I asked her to dinner, the object of my affections told me that she was already seeing somebody else. The peculiarity is that I felt no jealousy, no lust nor any other negative emotions whatsoever. We are friends, and I am more than happy with things the way they are.
Not so long ago, my reaction would have been completely different; a cocktail of self pity and turmoil disguised behind a well practiced poker face. I cannot decipher what exactly had changed, nor can I pinpoint the trigger for that event, but I can conclude that maybe, just maybe, I have grown up.
What I do know is that the story originates in Summer 2000 when a shy 13 year old boy with thick glasses, his voice breaking, his heart not yet, ventured onto the Pokemasters website and began lurking on their forum. I would submit my first post during November and have remained within the online Pokemon community ever since. I came for the game, but I stayed for the people. Today, I am part of the furniture.
The intervening 11 years is a colourful tale of mistakes made and lessons learned, of drama, of innocence lost and wisdom gained, of friendships come and gone, of success and recognition, of ego and acceptance, and of finding my place; all played out over the internet with a cast who I have mostly never met. Though I may bemoan the amount of time that I have spent here, there is no doubt in the value of my experiences. I have grown up on the internet and the Pokemon community has played an integral part of that process.
I am grateful to those few who I continue to speak with regularly, and those even fewer who I consider to be friends. You know who you are. I have idled on the same IRC channels as some people for literally years, without so much as a greeting. In a weird way, that is kind of neat and we should definitely keep a good thing going. To those with whom I am unacquainted; hi! I am pretty awesome. Hit me up!
Ask me anything (answers will be discretionary).
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An extraordinary thing happened to me on Tuesday. When I asked her to dinner, the object of my affections told me that she was already seeing somebody else. The peculiarity is that I felt no jealousy, no lust nor any other negative emotions whatsoever. We are friends, and I am more than happy with things the way they are.
Not so long ago, my reaction would have been completely different; a cocktail of self pity and turmoil disguised behind a well practiced poker face. I cannot decipher what exactly had changed, nor can I pinpoint the trigger for that event, but I can conclude that maybe, just maybe, I have grown up.
What I do know is that the story originates in Summer 2000 when a shy 13 year old boy with thick glasses, his voice breaking, his heart not yet, ventured onto the Pokemasters website and began lurking on their forum. I would submit my first post during November and have remained within the online Pokemon community ever since. I came for the game, but I stayed for the people. Today, I am part of the furniture.
The intervening 11 years is a colourful tale of mistakes made and lessons learned, of drama, of innocence lost and wisdom gained, of friendships come and gone, of success and recognition, of ego and acceptance, and of finding my place; all played out over the internet with a cast who I have mostly never met. Though I may bemoan the amount of time that I have spent here, there is no doubt in the value of my experiences. I have grown up on the internet and the Pokemon community has played an integral part of that process.
I am grateful to those few who I continue to speak with regularly, and those even fewer who I consider to be friends. You know who you are. I have idled on the same IRC channels as some people for literally years, without so much as a greeting. In a weird way, that is kind of neat and we should definitely keep a good thing going. To those with whom I am unacquainted; hi! I am pretty awesome. Hit me up!
Ask me anything (answers will be discretionary).
