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"You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need won't satisfy you."
— Dallin H. Oaks

It is my firm belief that everyone joins Gaia for a reason. Whether it's for employment, because they're bored and need something to do, or because there are people on it that are willing to listen to them, Gaia fills a hole in each and every one of our lives. By this, I also believe that there comes a time when that desire can be filled with other things. A job with better benefits or greater pay, friends that they can hang out with and have fun, someone whom you're willing to make a lifetime commitment with. Something better inevitably comes along and it's at that point that I believe that one can honorably dismiss themselves from the site.

Gaia, for the longest time, used to be my addiction. I would be on it from the time I woke up until I went to bed, from after school to when I had to leave for evening activities, from the beginning to the end of a class period. It became a major part of my life throughout my entire high school career. It was a definition of who I was.

However, after graduation and come the beginning of a new year, things would begin to change in my life. I got a job, attended college, hung out with friends. My brother came home from his mission and I hung out with him. Gaia also changed. It became consumed and assimilated with a corporate feeling. It began focusing on the big target age group of the mid-teen range of age rather than people of many ages who enjoyed a community feel with little pixel avatars and good times.

I don't think I left the site at that point because there was something that I needed to do. I needed to accomplish something on the site, something that I deemed my unconditional goal and desire. I needed to be a moderator on the site before I could leave. The moderator group was a big part of my experience. Personally meeting quite a few of them, becoming friends with more and people that would go on to become moderators, they set a lasting impression on me. They were something that I wanted to become, people that I looked up to, people that helped and cared not because they were paid or because there was an incentive. Because they genuinely wanted to. I wanted to be a part of that group.

My dismissal from said group, however, is setting me free. I am coming to a point in my life that, to my chagrin, allows no room for this friendship between Gaia and I. In no way am I holding animosity towards Gaia for their decisions. However, after my mission, I do not think I will be returning to the site with a permanence that it has held in my life. I'm not sure I'll even attend the panel at Anime Expo this year. Even now my time is limited with schooling, work, and mission preparation. At this point, it's safe to say that I'm still on the site for my friends. I will still give them the pleasure of my company for the time being. However, the forums, games, features, events, sponsors no longer hold my interest.

Friends, enjoy this site. Enjoy it while you can, until you can move on to greater things, be that tomorrow or until the end of your days. Do what you need to do, and endure to the end.

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:"
-2 Timothy 4:7