YMB

Greetings, my fellow community members. I've been away for a while. Perhaps it's for the better. I've learned a lot since I first joined Doomworld way back in July of 2007, one bored summer day when I was looking for a way to play Doom on my modern computer. Immediately, I tried to immerse myself in the community, perhaps jumping into the deep end when I should have started in the kiddie pool. Needless to say, my first impression on the community was less than perfect. In fact, I would hazard a guess that I was at some points one of the least liked members of Doomworld. I didn't realize this at first- obliviously, I thought the solution would just be to POST MORE POST MORE POST MORE. Only once I saw that people were actually going out of their way to chastise me for my bad posting (followed by a stint in Losers) did I see where I'd gone wrong. I was only 14, probably not mature enough to partake in intelligent discourse of any kind, let alone on the internet. Have I gotten any better? Probably not, depending on what standards you want to use for "better." At least I know when to shut up now.

So, why am I bothering to "return" to Doomworld to post this thread? Well, in one day and a few hours, I turn eighteen years old, so I'm feeling particularly reflective. Although I'd like to believe that the significance applied to that age is all arbitrary, something about this birthday really does feel different. It's a new stage of my life. In less than 6 months, I'll be living away from home for the first time in my life. I now have to take responsibility for all of my actions, being what society deems an "adult." I've taken a lot away from my experiences in the Doom community. The feeling of belonging in a community/group (which eventually happened thanks to the great people in Jetsons) is something I haven't gotten to feel very often in real life, so it means a bit more to me. I never thought I'd actually make acquaintances, let alone friends, from an online community about a 17-year-old video game, but some of the people I've met over these past 3.5 years I would definitely consider my friends (I can only hope they'd consider me theirs). There's so many things I will never forget from my time in this community- playing SpaceDM5 Map20 on Halloween Night 2007, fun with chatbots, Skulltag community apocalypses, fabricated clan rivalries, every failed attempt at finishing a map, participating in a 32in24, and way more things that I can't remember at this time.

I know I haven't always been very popular around these parts, but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone here at Doomworld, on IRC, and elsewhere- even those who tried to get me banned or losered- for putting up with me all these years. It can't have been easy. Hopefully the next couple go down a little easier.