User blog:Kaleidescope/The end has no end

we've been joking about it for months, but let's face it- this place is dead. the user base has shrunk so significantly that this place is a shell of what it used to be. don't get me wrong, the remaining users here are great, but this isn't the same place that i joined.

i first joined here in june 2011. i was in the fourth grade at that time. now, i'm 16 years old and in my junior year of high school. if you take that amount of time and add it to today's date, we'd be in may 2024, and i'd be graduated from college and most likely in a job. i'm a much different person than i was when i joined, and 6.5 years is a very long time. that's 39.8% of my lifespan so far. averaging that out with the current expected lifespan of a US citizen on average (80), that's 31.8 years. it's an insane amount of time. when i joined this place, i was very much still a kid. i had no idea what was going on in the world, much like most ten year olds. i devoted a lot of my time to this place, the whole way up through the fall of 2014. for most of those years, i was an antisocial outcast, having little-to-no friends outside of this website. the few friends that i did have during that time period, i've grown distant from, with only one or two exceptions. my life has changed so significantly.

three years ago, i did nothing but sit in my room and troll websites for useless entertainment. i ruined my reputation among people i'd known for years all out of boredom. i had nothing to do. it was inexcusable, and i've far moved past that kind of stuff. i've come out of my shell. i've become a social person. i've begun to put myself out there. three years ago, i did absolutely nothing. now, i'm involved in all kinds of things that i love. i joined my high school's marching band, concert band, and choir, and i've made it to my county's band and choir festivals. in my district's choir festival, i placed 9th in my voice section. hell, just today, i found out that i got a leading part in my school's production of Pippin. i've become a much better person than i was.

and now, just as i'm fully coming out of my shell and becoming a better person, there's nobody left here. the old admins and mods that i became close with when i was a mod are all gone. the guy who's probably the best friend i've ever had, klintrin, outgrew this place eons ago, and though i still keep in contact with him a lot, he's not here anymore. another one of my close friends, nigma/lcf/whatever you know him as, doesn't come here very much at all. obi, one of my first close friends, retired years ago. so did drew. riolu's been inactive for ages. ireithien, i haven't seen in years. every little person i interacted with when i was active is gone. alemas, the admin who finally let me back here after years of trying to better myself as a person, just retired. with him goes most of the force behind the wiki. there's not much left here anymore. not a single person who was active when i joined comes here anymore. (brave, you don't entirely count because i didn't know you until later.)

i came back a few months ago and was active for mostly the entire summer, but my activity since school started back up has been extremely spotty. i don't really have the time for this place anymore. i'm a junior, so i'm overloaded with schoolwork, and musical practices begin next week. i just got a girlfriend, too, so she takes up a decent bit of my time as well. i've gotten some real friends for the first time in a long time, and i've spent more time with them than i ever had with any other friends. i'm a much busier person than i used to be.

i've always enjoyed coming here. i've enjoyed the people here, and the times i've had here. i want to thank everybody whose made my time here so great, but most of those people are gone now, moved on. even though i'm one of the last holdouts, i think it's about time i move on too. sometimes it's best to leave things as a memory than to watch things die completely. i can't promise i'll be gone forever, i'll probably still pop in, but i don't see myself ever being active again. it was fun while it lasted, folks.

(the song i wanted to post isn't on youtube, so deal with another beatles song instead.)

-LFY