Welcome to Gaia! ::

I think I've found my place here. This site. This guild. Among friends that I have known for years. Friends who always seem to come back to the same place out of nostalgia, remembering better days. No matter how many times I leave, I always find myself coming back. I love this place. I love you guys. I love the memories and experiences everyone and everything here has imprinted upon me.

Even though all my old friends may have left long ago, there are still people here. There are new people to meet, new things to do, and while they may not be as glorious as they once were 8 years ago, it is still better than real life. I would rather come here and spend hours playing this new Lake Kindred than spend even a minute of my time associating with people IRL that I don't even like. I would rather spend all my words in these guilds and on the forums than talk to these fake people face to face. They put on a charade and I do too all because of the judging eyes of society. Here, where we are all anonymous and will never meet each other IRL, we are free to be ourselves.

We are free here. Unbridled and unhindered in who we can choose to be. Most of us choose to be ourselves because the real world will not allow it. That is why I can keep coming back here. Ironically, the people here are so real and tangible because we have no reason to hide our true selves. I love you all so much.

I find it easier to talk to people IRL after you've talked to them on something like Gaia first to really get to know them. About half of the GFs that I've had I first met on FB or Gaia and messaged back and forth between them online before finally doing something IRL. It's easier to be open about your feelings when you don't have to meet someone face to face. Finding the courage to do so is what makes us strong though. Slowly, I'm beginning to learn how to be a stronger person and to be less fearful of the way society will judge me. I've come to terms with the temporary nature of the world and have come to the realization that while we may be forgotten by the people we once called our friends, we will just as easily be forgotten by those who ridiculed and shunned us. To live in fear of this social pressure is to live life behind a mask. These very masks are what keeps us from genuinely bonding with others.

When we meet people in real life, our masks are the personas we adopt to try to fit in with the crowd and make new friends. When we meet people here, our masks are the ideas of anonymity that prevents the other person from ever knowing who our physical person is IRL. We cannot be held accountable for our beliefs and values and as such, we are not hindered by the opinions and disagreements of others. We are real when we are fake and fake when we are real.

Exactly. People are so afraid in real life to be who they are. Unfortunately, that's how the world is. You can't go around being the weirdo everywhere you go. You'd never be able to hold down a job and you'd freak everyone around you the ******** out. You don't need to worry about any of that here. This place is a whole different world where we can escape to and leave our real lives behind us. It is so liberating and exhilarating. It makes us feel alive.

Often times, when everything we know falls apart, we look at our shattered past and stare into our reflection in the broken pieces on the floor. The once radiant whole now lies broken into little pieces, impossible to be put back together. We mourn the loss of all those who once meant so much to us and all we can see are the ugly pieces on the floor that remain as that is all that stands out. All we see are our failures and everything we have lost. We are blinded to all that we have made and all that we can make. We spend so much time grieving our loss that we can't see the new heaven being built for us by nameless strangers around us. We have no idea who they are and we have no idea why they're here. All we can see is that glimmer of paradise that eludes us simply because life is leaving us behind as we wallow in our misery. All we need to do is get out and pitch in to become a part of this wonderful paradise.

The joy that it brings us will never be the same as the joy we once had, but that doesn't mean it is worse. It's just different. A different kind of happiness that, perhaps, we can foster and nourish into becoming something much more than what we once had. It is pointless to give up when you have nothing left to lose. When your back is against the wall, do you truly believe it is best to just lie down and take it up the metaphorical a**? Of course not. You fight back harder than you have ever fought before. You build yourself your own heaven with the sweat of your brow and the dedication that only a cornered man can have. The worst thing that can happen is you take it up the a** anyway, but the best is something that will be forever imprinted upon the immortal slab we know as our memory.

You go out and you find your people. You say you don't know how you'll do it, but that's your fear talking. You're afraid of failure and all the wasted time and effort that may go into it. Once you actually do it, you'll look back and realize just how easy it really was once you conquer your own inner demons. Fear, despair, insecurity, grief. They act as inhibitors and do nothing but keep us from achieving everything we want and being all that we should be. We must all conquer our own demons one day. Might as well start now right? razz

Very well. Just get to posting more OC. We need fresh topics these days. I find one of the biggest deterrents (to me at least) when coming into a new environment is trying to find a way to assimilate into a community that already exists. If we provide content that people can relate to and provide feedback towards, it would make new members much more inclined to respond. Threads that were created years ago are just not gonna cut it in regards to "fresh" content.